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THE   RELIGION  OF  THE 
OLD    TESTAMENT 

ITS  PLACE  AMONG  THE  RELIGIONS 
OF  THE  NEARER  EAST 


BY 

KARL   MARTI 

PROFESSOR   OF    HEBREW  AND  OF  THEOLOGY  IN   THE  UNIVERSITY  OF    BERN 
EDITOR    OF   THE    "  KUKZER    HAND-COMMENTAR   ZUM    ALTEN    TESTAMENT" 


TRANSLATED    BY 

Rev.  G.  A.  BIENEMANN,  M.A. 

EDITED    BY 

Rev.  W.  D.  MORRISON,  LL.D. 


WILLIAMS   &   NORGATE 

14  HENRIETTA  STREET,  COVENT  GARDEN,  LONDON 
NEW    YORK:    G.   P.    PUTNAM'S    SONS 

1914 


PREFACE 

The  author's  aim  in  the  little  book  which  is 
now  published  is  to  give  a  succinct,  but  as  far 
as  possible  complete,  account  of  the  nature  of 
the  religion  of  the  O.T.  In  so  doing  he  has 
endeavoured  to  lay  especial  emphasis  on  those 
features  of  this  religion  which  distinguish  it 
from  the  other  religions  of  antiquity  and  con- 
stitute its  peculiarity.  One  will  therefore 
expect  to  find  neither  a  minute  examination  of 
the  rival  religions  with  which  the  IsraeUtes 
came  into  contact  nor  a  detailed  exposition 
of  the  whole  course  of  the  history  and  of  the 
conceptions  of  the  Israelite  religion.  To  have 
attempted  either  would  only  have  increased 
the  difficulties  of  an  already  difficult  task. 
For  if,  on  the  one  hand,  the  reader  had  been 

V 

895803 


vi  PREFACE 

invited  to  consider  the  whole  field  of  inquiry 
concerning  the  non-Israelitic  religions,  his 
attention  might  easily  have  been  diverted  from 
their  really  important  features,  and,  besides,  a 
disproportionate  amount  of  space  would  have 
been  occupied ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
endeavour  to  trace  the  many  ramifications  of 
the  separate  problems  which  present  them- 
selves to  the  student  of  O.T.  history  would 
have  perpetually  broken  the  thread  of  the 
narrative  and  would  certainly  have  operated 
prejudicially  in  obliterating  features  which 
should  have  been  salient.  For  detailed  investi- 
gations and  completer  references  to  authorities, 
the  reader  will  therefore  consult  the  com- 
mentaries to  the  O.T.  and  the  histories  of  the 
Israelite  and  other  religions  of  antiquity. 

A  short  conspectus,  such  as  is  here  offered, 
may  possibly  be  of  use  to  the  general 
reader,  to  many  who  would  wish  to  find  a 
guide  in  the  present  time  of  controversy  con- 
cerning the  religion  of  the  O.T.  and  its  relation 
to  the  other  rehgions.     I  shall  be  glad,  there- 


PREFACE  vii 

fore,  if  the  following  pages  enable  anyone  to 

realize  the   incomparable   importance    of  the 

O.T.  for  the  understanding  of  the  history  of 

religion  in  general,  and  especially  for  that  of 

Christianity. 

KARL  MARTI. 


CONTENTS 


PAGES 

Preface     .........        v 

Introduction     .......  1-35 

CHAPTER  I 
The  Nom.\d  Religion  .....         36-71 

CHAPTER  n 
The  Peasant  Religion 72-123 

CHAPTER  HI 
The  Religion  of  the  Prophets  .  124-183 

CHAPTER  IV 
The  Legal  Religion  .....     184-237 

Retrospective  and  Anticipative         .         .  238-251 


RELIGION    OF 
THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

INTRODUCTION 

During  the  last  few  years  a  very  significant 
change  has  taken  place  in  the  way  in  which 
the  O.T.  is  regarded.  It  is  only  quite 
recently  that  the  right  to  make  a  comparison 
between  the  religion  of  Israel  and  the  other 
religions  of  antiquity  has  been  incontrovert- 
ibly  established — the  right,  that  is,  to  make 
a  real  comparison,  and  not  one  in  which  the 
result  is  prejudged  on  religious  or  dogmatic 
grounds,  which  sees  on  the  one  side  only  light 
and  truth,  and  on  the  other  only  darkness  and 
error,  but  one  which  places  the  religions  side 
by   side   in   a    perfectly   unbiassed    historical 


2     RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

spirit,  and  examines  and  judges  each  according 
to  its  kind.  At  present  the  right  has  been 
attained,  and  is  generally  recognized  in  the 
scientific  world ;  in  fact,  the  importance  of 
the  method  of  religious  historical  criticism — or, 
more  exactly,  of  the  method  of  comparative 
religion — has  in  the  meantime  not  only  been 
recognized,  but  has  in  many  cases  even  become 
popular.  Indeed,  there  are  already  unmis- 
takable signs  of  exaggeration  ;  one  is  in  danger 
of  rushing  into  the  other  extreme,  of  paying 
attention  exclusively  to  points  of  similarity 
and  resemblance,  and  of  entirely  disregarding, 
or  at  any  rate  thrusting  into  the  background, 
as  unimportant  all  that  is  dissimilar.  As  the 
conclusion  of  our  commentary  we  have  now 
to  assign  the  religion  of  the  O.T.  its  place 
amongst  the  religions  of  the  nearer  East,  and  it 
will  be,  therefore,  an  important  part  of  our  task 
to  pay  especial  attention  to  the  unique  features 
of  the  Israelite  religion  besides  noting  the 
religious  stock  possessed  by  Israel  in  common 
with  its  neighbours. 


INTRODUCTION  3 

This  question  as  to  what  constitutes  the 
unique  nature  of  the  Israehte  rehgion  demands 
an  answer  to-day  far  more  imperatively  and 
urgently  than  it  did  even  a  few  years  ago. 
Formerly  it  was  supposed  sufficient  to  answer 
the  question  by  merely  referring  to  the  unique 
origin  of  the  O.T.  writings,  which  were  in 
their  time  simply  accepted  as  the  original 
source  and  the  firm  foundation  of  the  O.T. 
religion,  just  as  the  Koran  in  the  case  of  Islam. 
But  the  time  in  which  it  was  possible  to  be 
content  with  this  answer  has  passed  beyond 
recall,  for  scientific  theology  has  exhaustively 
examined  the  origin  of  the  O.T.  as  a  whole  as 
well  as  of  each  single  part,  and  has  conclusively 
proved,  for  all  except  the  wilfully  blind,  first, 
that  the  O.T.  writings  do  not  constitute  the 
primary  cause  of  the  O.T.  religion,  but  are  the 
documents  and  monuments  of  its  history ;  and, 
secondly,  that  as  regards  the  mode  of  their 
origin  these  writings  do  not  occupy  any 
peculiar  position  amongst  the  books  of  an- 
tiquity as  a  whole.     They  were  composed  and 


4     RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

written  by  the  hands  of  men  in  the  course  of 
the  last  thousand  years  B.C.,  and  they  have  met 
wath  the  same  fate  as  other  books  of  antiquity : 
we  should  even  be  fully  justified  in  maintain- 
ing that  in  the  course  of  time  they  have  ex- 
perienced all  manner  of  alterations  of  a 
peculiar  nature,  just  because  they  were 
intended  to  serve  the  interests  of  the  religion 
of  Israel.  It  is  not  only  that  careless  tran- 
scribers have  introduced  unintentional  altera- 
tions and  that  private  owners  of  manuscripts 
have  increased  the  length  of  their  copies  by 
the  addition  of  new  paragraphs  at  their  own 
pleasure,  but  these  old  writings  have  been 
regularly  edited,  and,  finally,  they  have  been 
systematically  prepared  for  use  as  the  religious 
writings  of  the  Jews  both  in  the  synagogue 
and  at  home.  We  need  but  recall  the  differ- 
ence which  existed  between  the  faith  in  pre- 
exilic  Israel  and  that  of  the  Jewish  community 
in  order  to  understand  how  absolutely  essential 
a  minute  examination  and  thorough  revision 
of  the  old  documents  had  become  in  order  to 


INTRODUCTION  5 

harmonize  them  with  the   hiter  writings  and 
the  new  ideas  and  religious  convictions. 

If  it  is,  therefore,  impossible  to  appeal  to  the 
exceptional  nature  of  the  origin  of  the  O.T.,  it 
can  only  be  the  contents  which  concern  us  in 
our  present  inquiry.  Here,  too,  the  position 
has  completely  changed  within  recent  years. 
While  no  doubt  in  certain  quarters  the  view 
still  prevails  that  we  possess  in  the  O.T.  the 
oldest  tradition  of  the  human  race,  and  entirely 
original  and  primitive  matter,  in  others  it  is 
confidently  maintained  to-day  that  practically 
nothing  original  is  to  be  found  in  the  O.T. 
On  the  one  hand  Israel  is  regarded,  as  far 
as  its  religion  is  concerned,  as  occupying  an 
isolated  position  amongst  its  neighbours ;  it 
has  been  settled,  as  it  were,  on  some  fortunate 
island  against  which  the  waves  of  the  great 
sea  surge,  but  surge  in  vain ;  and  if  anything 
is  discovered  amongst  other  nations  recalling 
anything  that  we  know  to  have  existed 
amongst  the  Israelites,  then  it  is  declared  to 
have   been  borrowed  from  the   O.T.   and   to 


6     RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

have  been  handed  down  in  a  deteriorated  and 
degenerate  form.  Others  consider  the  rehgious 
development  of  Israel  to  have  presented  an 
exact  parallel  to  its  political  history.  Just  as 
the  position  of  Palestine  caused  it  to  form 
the  bridge  between  the  two  great  centres  of 
political  power  and  civilization,  Egypt  and 
Mesopotamia,  and  just  as  the  two  currents 
passed  over  this  country  from  the  East  and 
from  the  West,  bringing  about  an  exchange  of 
civilization,  so  in  the  religious  sphere,  too, 
elements  flowed  together  from  all  sides ;  here 
they  crossed  or  here  they  were  thrown  into 
a  common  crucible,  so  that  it  is  impossible  to 
speak  of  Israel  as  possessing  any  independent 
importance  of  its  own. 

Which  of  these  two  views  is  the  right  one  ? 
Was  the  religion  of  Israel  entirely  unaffected 
by  all  other  religions,  or  is  it  the  mere  product 
of  the  geographical  position  of  Palestine  ?  At 
any  rate  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  Israelite 
religion  has  a  great  many  points  of  contact 
with  its  various  neighbours.     In  most  of  these 


INTRODUCTION  7 

cases  it  is  inconceivable  to  imagine  that  there 
was  an  entire  absence  of  connection,  even 
though  the  particular  nature  of  the  dependence 
or  of  the  mutual  relation  is  not  at  first  sight 
clear. 

A  short  summary  calling  attention  merely 
to  the  various  categories  with  which  we  are 
here  concerned  will  enable  us  to  obtain  a 
fairly  accurate  impression  of  the  vast  extent 
of  this  common  religious  stock. 

We  may  first  of  all  notice  the  narratives  at 
the  beginning  of  the  O.T.  which  formed  so 
very  important  a  part  of  the  O.T.  religion— 
the  story  of  the  creation  of  the  world  and 
especially  the  description  of  the  flood.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  in  the  first  there  are 
certain  elements  which  recur  in  the  old  Baby- 
lonian epos  of  the  creation  of  the  world  and 
other  creation  myths ;  it  cannot  surely,  e.g.^ 
be  a  mere  coincidence  that  the  Babylonian 
narrative  begins  exactly  like  the  two  in  the 
Bible.^ 

^  Gen.  i.  1  seq.,  ii,  4  seq. 


8     RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

"  Formerly,  when  above,  The      heavens     were      not 

named  ; 

Below,  the  dry  land  Did  not  bear  a  name. 

When  the  ocean,  the  prim-  Their  progenitor, 

eval. 

And     the     original     flood,  The  mother  of  both ; 

Tiamat, 

Still  their  waters  Were  mingled  together. 

When  no  field  as   yet  was  No  marsh  was  to  be  seen  ; 

marked  off. 

Formerly  when  of  the  gods  None   had    yet   been    pro- 
duced. 

No  name  was  called.  No  fate  decreed, 

Then  were  created  The  gods,  etc." 

And,  again,  the  Babylonian-Assyrian  story 
of  the  Flood  is  so  exactly  parallel  to  that  of 
the  O.T.  that  it  is  inconceivable  that  the 
two  stories  are  independent,  that  there  is 
no  connection  between  them  ;  we  need  but 
remind  ourselves  how  the  cuneiform  version 
describes  the  sending  forth  of  the  birds  from 
the  Ark. 

"  Then  I  sent  forth  a  dove  And  let  it  loose  ; 

The  dove  flew  Hither  and  thither  ; 

But  as  there  was  no  place  It  again  returned, 
of  rest. 


INTRODUCTION  9 

Then  I  sent  forth  a  swallow  And  let  it  loose ; 

The  swallow  flew  Hither  and  thither ; 

But  as  there  was  no  place  It  again  returned. 

of  rest 

Then  I  sent  forth  a  raven  And  let  it  loose ; 

The  raven  flew,  Saw  the  waters  decreased, 

Eat,  waded  about,  crowed,  But  did  not  return," 

We  must  not  forget  either  that,  like  Noah, 
Ut-napistim,  when  he  has  been  rescued,  offers 
up  a  sacrifice  as  a  thankoffering  for  his  safety 
amid  the  universal  destruction. 

"  The  gods  smelt  the  savour, 
The  gods  smelt  the  sweet  odour. 
The  gods  gathered  like  flies  around  the  sacrificer." 

It  is  impossible  that  the  O.T.  version  is  the 
original,  for  the  cuneiform  version  is  much 
older,  and  goes  back  to  a  time  when  there  was 
as  yet  no  people  of  Israel,  and,  therefore,  no 
Israelite  version  of  the  Flood.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  Israelite  version  is  no  mere 
copy  of  the  Assyrian-Babylonian,  for  the 
biblical  narrative  is  stamped  by  the  genuine 
characteristics  of  the  Israelite  spirit ;  and, 
besides,    there    are    parallels    amongst    other 


10  RELIGION   OF  THE    OLD  TESTAMENT 

peoples  as  well.  A  very  cursory  comparison 
of  the  two  versions  proves  the  decided 
superiority  of  the  biblical :  yonder  in  Babel  a 
crude  polytheism,  the  single  gods  quarrelling 
with  each  other  because  the  one  called 
forth  the  flood  and  the  other  saved  Ut- 
napistim,  while  they  cheat  and  deceive  each 
other,  and  when  the  waters  of  the  flood  rise 
they  cower  together  in  fear  on  the  edge  of 
the  vault  of  heaven  howling  like  dogs,  and 
then  again,  they  swarm  around  the  rescued 
hero,  enticed  like  flies  by  the  savour  of  the 
sacrifice ;  here  in  the  O.T.  a  relatively  high 
conception  of  the  God  who  brought  about 
the  Flood.  In  the  one  case  we  have  the  raw 
material,  in  the  other  a  relatively  pure  applica- 
tion of  it. 

Nor  can  the  O.T.  any  longer  establish  its 
claim  to  a  prerogative  which  at  all  times 
formed  the  pride  of  the  Israelites — that  is,  the 
antiquity  and  the  unique  character  of  the  law. 
The  Book  of  Deuteronomy  says :  *'  What 
great   nation   is  there  that  hath  statutes  and 


INTRODUCTION  11 

judgments  so  righteous  as  all  this  law  ? "  Now, 
as  is  well  known,  a  code  was  discovered  a  short 
time  ago  (December  1901,  January  1902)  at 
Susa  resembling  the  Israehtelaw  in  many  points, 
but  going  back  to  a  much  older  age  than 
that  of  Moses.  It  is  the  civil  code  of  Hammu- 
rabi, the  mighty  king  of  Babylon,  (about  2250 
B.C.),  inscribed  upon  a  block  of  black  diorite 
rather  more  than  two  metres  high.  Through 
this  law  we  can  obtain  a  surprising  insight 
into  the  stage  of  civilization  which  prevailed 
about  2000  B.C.  in  the  south  of  Babylon,  and 
into  the  ideas  of  equity  which  were  then 
current,  or  were,  at  any  rate,  entertained  as  an 
ideal.  We  can  see  that  even  at  that  early 
date  the  same  principles  are  laid  down  as 
prevailed  later  in  Israel.  The  Leoo  talionis, 
An  eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,  etc.,^ 
is  already  to  be  found  in  the  code  of  Hammu- 
rabi.^ But  what  is  a  great  deal  more  striking 
is  that  life  in  Babylon  about  2000  B.C.  was  far 

1  Ex.  xxi.  24 ;  Deut.  xix.  21  ;  Lev.  xxiv.  20. 

2  Winckler,  196,  197. 


12  RELIGION    OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

more  complicated,  that  civilization  was  far 
more  advanced  than  in  Palestine  at  the  time 
when  the  corresponding  laws  were  codified ; 
for  the  Israelite  legislation  is  concerned  with 
nothing  higher  than  the  simple  circumstances 
of  a  people  of  peasants  engaged  in  tillage 
and  the  rearing  of  cattle.  To  mention  but  a 
single  instance,  surgery  must  already  have 
attained  to  an  important  position  in  the  sci- 
ence of  medicine.  An  unsuccessful  operation 
resulting  in  the  patient's  death  is  penalized  by 
a  heavy  fine  and  forfeiture  of  the  doctor's 
license.  This  much  has  at  any  rate  been 
proved  by  the  discovery  of  the  code  of 
Hammurabi,  that  the  O.T.  law  cannot  lay 
claim  to  a  higher  antiquity.  While  it  is 
unnecessary  to  suppose  that  the  one  law  was 
necessarily  directly  borrowed  from  the  other, 
there  is  in  both  codes  the  application  of  the 
same  principles  which  had  developed  at  a 
very  early  date.  Such,  for  instance,  was  the 
strict  law  of  retaliation  which  was  intended  to 
restrain  the  wild  extravagance  of  revenge  or 


INTRODUCTION  13 

the  savage  individual  exercise  of  justice.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  deserves  to  be  noticed  that 
in  comparison  with  some  crude  and  cruel 
features  in  the  code  of  Hammurabi,  a  more 
humane  tendency  can  be  traced  in  many 
provisions  of  the  law  of  Israel. 

But  the  claim  of  antiquity  may  still  be 
made,  it  may  be  said,  on  behalf  of  the  cere- 
monial law,  as  there  is  no  trace  of  this  in  the 
code  of  Hammurabi.  This  position  is,  how- 
ever, untenable,  for  in  the  first  place  the 
oldest  codification  of  the  law  in  Israel,  the 
so-called  book  of  the  covenant,  contains 
practically  no  prescriptions  concerning  rites 
and  ceremonies  to  be  observed  at  the  sacrifices 
or  at  the  public  worship  generally ;  and, 
secondly,  it  has  been  known  for  some  time 
past  that  the  sacrificial  rites  of  the  Israelites 
in  nowise  diff'er  from  the  customs  prevalent 
in  the  East  in  ancient  times,  so  that  the 
Israelite  cultus  could  be  condemned  by  the 
prophets  as  actually  heathen.  The  cultus  is, 
therefore,  the  last  place  in  which  to  look  for 


14  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMExNT 

anything  distinctively  Lsraelitish  as  compared 
with  the  customs  of  the  neighbouring  peoples. 
Hence  the  Israelite  ceremonial  law  cannot  be 
quoted  as  a  distinctive  feature  between  the 
Israelites  and  the  Gentiles ;  on  the  contrary, 
it  belongs  to  the  common  stock  of  the  peoples 
of  antiquity.  Even  the  two  institutions  of 
circumcision  and  the  Sabbath,  which  one  has 
been  accustomed  to  regard  as  peculiarly  char- 
acteristic of  the  Israelite  religion,  are  of  a 
non-Israelitic  origin.  Circumcision  was  shared 
by  the  people  of  Israel  with  nearly  all  the 
neighbouring  peoples,  with  the  exception  of 
the  Philistines.  It  probably  made  its  way 
from  Africa  by  way  of  Egypt  to  the  tribes 
in  the  neighbouring  portions  of  Arabia  and 
Syria,  whereas  the  Philistines,  who  had  im- 
migrated from  the  north,  were  unacquainted 
with  it.  It  was  only  during  the  exile,  when 
the  Israelites  lived  amongst  the  uncircumcised, 
that  it  acquired  its  importance  as  a  specific 
sign  of  adhesion  to  the  community  of  Jahwe, 
and   this   importance  it  maintained  after  the 


INTRODUCTION  15 

< 

exile,  whereas  before,  Jeremiah  refused  to  see 
in  it  any  real  relation  to  Jahwe/  The  case  of 
the  Sabbath  is  exactly  parallel.  In  old  times 
it  is  always  mentioned  side  by  side  with  the 
new  moon  festival ;  it  can,  therefore,  scarcely 
be  imderstood  to  mean  anything  else  than  the 
full  moon.^  We  may  find  an  additional 
reason  for  assuming  this  to  be  the  old  meaning 
of  Sabbath  in  the  fact  that  in  Babylonian  the 
corresponding  word  "Sapattu"  (Sabattu)  de- 
notes not  the  seventh  day  but  the  full  moon.^ 
The  weekly  festival  of  the  Sabbath  only  arose, 
therefore,  by  an  artificial  transmutation  of  the 
festival  of  the  full  moon,  which  was  not 
peculiar  to  Israel  alone.  By  the  absolute  rest 
which  was  then  enjoined,  it  acquired  an 
entirely  different  character  to  that  of  the  old 
pre-exilic  festival  of  the  full  moon  Sabbath ; 
it  developed  in  an  altogether  peculiar  manner 
and    became    the    Jewish    Sabbath,    next    to 

1  Jer.  iv.  S,  4 ;  Lev.  xii.  3 ;  Gen.  xvii. 

2  Am.  viii.  5  ;  Hos.  ii.  11  ;  Isa.  i.  13. 

^  Cp.  Zimmern,  Nochmals  Sabbat  in  Z.  D.  M.  G.,  1904. 
458-460. 


16  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

circumcision  the  most  important  institution 
of  the  Jewish  religion.^ 

Just  as  the  "  stories  "  at  the  beginning  of 
the  O.T.  and  the  law  cannot  be  regarded  as 
the  pecuUar  property  of  the  IsraeUtes,  so,  too, 
no  exckisive  claim  can  be  established  on  the 
psalms,  the  songs  and  hymns  which  form  such 
a  very  precious  treasure  in  the  O.T.  religion, 
in  which  Israelite  piety  has  found  so  deep  and 
striking  an  expression.  For  the  Assyrian- 
Babylonian  religion  furnishes  us  with  the  most 
peculiar  parallels.  In  the  Babylonian  psalms, 
too,  the  praises  of  God  are  sung ;  the  sinner's 
cry  for  repentance  proceeds  from  the  depths 
of  his  soul ;  here,  too,  misery  and  misfortune 
call  forth  lamentation  and  weeping,  and  the 
heartfelt  prayer  for  succour  and  for  safety. 

Even  the  name  of  God,  Jahwe,  which  was 
accounted  to  be  the  holiest  possession  of  the 
religion  of  Israel,  was  probably  not  at  first  the 
exclusive  property  of  the  Israelites.  It  is  true 
that  it  is  nothing  more  than  a  hypothesis  that 
1  Cp.  Meinholdj  Sabbat  und  Woche  im  A.  T.,  1 905. 


INTRODUCTION  17 

the  name  of  Jahwe  was  borrowed  from  the 
JNIidiaiiites  or  Kenites,  and  the  Assyriologists 
still  differ  as  to  the  right  reading  and  inter- 
pretation of  inscriptions  which  are  said  to 
contain  the  name  Jahwe ;  still  we  must  be 
prepared  to  find  the  name  of  Jahwe  appearing 
in  the  oldest  pre-Israelitic  times  in  some  place 
in  JNIesopotamia  or  in  Palestine,  and  we  must 
accustom  ourselves  to  this  conception.  In 
the  meantime  it  is  an  open  question  whether 
we  really  have  instances  of  the  name  of  Jahwe 
in  the  names  Ja-u-um-ilu,  Ja-l*i-ilu,  Ja-'-Pi-ilu, 
which  are  met  with  in  business  documents  of 
the  age  of  Hammurabi — that  is  to  say,  about 
2200  B.c.^  In  the  same  way  it  is  doubtful 
whether  the  second  part  of  the  name  Achi- 
ja-mi  (which  we  may  identify  with  Achi-ja-wi 
=  Achijahu  ^),  discovered  by  Sellin  in  the 
course  of  his  excavations  at  Ta'annek,  in  a 
cuneiform   letter  which   probably  dates   from 

^  Cp.  Zimmern,  K.  A.    T.,  3rd    ed.,    468^  and  cp.  also 
K.  H.  C.  zum  A.  T.y  xiii.  p.  109. 


2  I  Kings  xiv,  4. 


2 


18       RELIGION  OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

about  1500  B.C.,  is  to  be  connected  with  the 
divine  name  Jahwe.^ 

This  brief  review  shows  us  that  even  such 
important  elements  of  the  IsraeUte  rehgion  as 
the  tales  at  the  begmning  of  Genesis,  the 
whole  law  in  its  various  component  parts, 
institutions  hke  circumcision  and  the  Sabbath, 
which  came  later  to  be  valued  above  all  others, 
those  deeply  religious  songs  contained  in  the 
Book  of  Psalms,  and  perhaps  even  the  name 
of  God,  Jahwe  itself,  are  not  peculiar  to  Israel, 
but  form  the  common  property  of  the  Semitic 
peoples,  or,  at  any  rate,  of  some  of  them.  This 
result  cannot  do  otherwise  than  fill  us  with 
astonishment,  but  this  astonishment  is  con- 
siderably increased  when  we  turn  our  attention 
to  less  important  elements  as  well  as  to 
individual  features  in  the  O.T.  as  it  has  come 
down  to  us.  We  are  all  of  us  surprised  when 
we   hear   a   story  of  the    childhood  of   King 

1  Cp.  Sellin.      Tell  Ta'^annek  {Denkschnften  der  kaiserl. 
Akad.  der  Wissensch.  in  Wien,  philos.-hisior.  Klasse,  Band  I.), 

1904,  p.  1 1 5  scq.,  and  Der  Ertrag  der  Ausgrabungen  im  Orient, 

1905,  p.  29. 


INTRODUCTION  19 

Sargon  of  Agade,  the  founder  of  the  Northern 
Babylonian  kingdom  about  2800  B.C.,  which 
resembles  that  of  Moses,  who  at  a  much  later 
age  came  to  be  the  liberator  and  founder  of 
the  people  of  Israel.  Sargon,  an  historical 
character,  whose  existence  is  known  to  us  by- 
contemporary  documents  and  historical  refer- 
ences as  well  as  by  his  seal,  is  introduced  as 
telling  the  story  in  his  own  person : 

"  I  am  Sargon,  the  mighty  King  of  Agade  ; 
my  mother  was  a  vestal,  my  father  of  humble 
origin,  and  my  father's  brother  inhabited  the 
mountains.  My  native  town  was  Azupiranu, 
which  is  situated  on  the  banks  of  the 
Euphrates.  My  vestal  mother  conceived  me, 
in  secret  she  bore  me,  she  laid  me  in  an  ark  of 
bulrushes,  she  closed  my  door  with  slime  and 
with  pitch,  she  laid  me  in  the  river  ....  the 
river  bore  me  do^vn  to  Akki  the  irrigator. 
Akki  the  irrigator  received  me  in  the 
friendliness  of  his  heart  (?).  Akki  the  irri- 
gator brought  me  up  as  his  child.  Akki  the 
irrigator    made     me    to     be     his    gardener. 


20  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

AMiilst  I  was  working  as  his  gardener  Istar 
fell  in  lo\'e  "with  me  ....  for  many  years 
I  exercised  dominion  ....  for  many  years 
I  ruled  over  the  black-headed  and  governed 
them."  ^  Nor  must  we  forget  that  this  "  typi- 
cal legend  of  the  founder  of  a  dynasty"^ 
recurs  in  all  manner  of  variants  and  in  all 
manner  of  countries  and  ages.  We  need  but 
think  firstly  of  the  Egyptian- Phoenician  legend. 
According  to  this  story  Osiris,  who  has  been 
shut  up  in  a  chest  and  thrown  in  a  river,  swims 
to  Phoenicia,  where  lie  is  saved  and  called 
Adonis.  Isis,  who  had  come  in  search  of  him 
as  far  as  liyblos,  and  had  sat  down  in  sorrow 
at  a  well's  mouth,  was  there  addressed  by  the 
maidservants  of  the  royal  house.  Through 
their  intervention  she  was  received  by  the 
queen  and  became  the  nurse  of  her  son. 

Or,  again,    we   may  refer   to  the   story  in 
Herodotus,^  according  to  which   the  founder 

^  Cf.  AlfredJeremias,  Das  A.  T.  ivi  Lichte  des  alien  Orients, 
1904,  pp.  255  scq. 
2  Winckler,  K.  A.  T.,  3rd  ed.,  18.  s  Bk.  i.  113. 


INTRODUCTION  21 

of  the  Persian  empire,  Cyrus,  was  ordered  to 
be  exposed  by  his  grandfather  in  consequence 
of  an  interpretation  of  a  dream,  but  he  was 
saved  by  a  herdsman  and  educated  by  him. 
Lastly,  we  may  compare  with  these  Eastern 
legends  one  from  the  West :  Romulus  and 
Remus,  founders  of  the  Roman  empire,  who 
passed  as  the  sons  of  the  vestal  Rhea  Silvia, 
and  Mars,  the  god  of  war,  were  thrown  into 
the  Tiber  in  a  basket  immediately  after  their 
birth.  The  basket  was  caught  in  the  roots  of 
a  fig-tree ;  there  a  she-wolf  suckled  the  twins 
until  they  were  discovered  by  Faustulus,  the 
head  herdsman.^  This  one  example  shows  us 
how^  elements,  which  at  first  sight  appear  to  us 
peculiar  to  the  O.T.,  occur  throughout  the 
world.  And  so,  in  fact,  elements  come 
crowding  in  upon  us  from  East  and  West, 
from  North  and  South,  which  present  a 
wonderful  similarity  with  one  or  other  of  the 
biblical  stories,  or,  at  least,  with  an  episode  in 
them.     As   yet,  it  is   true,  no  reference   has 

'  A.  Jeremias,  op.  cit.,  pp.  9.5Q  seq. 


22  RELIGION   OF  THE    OED   TESTAMENT 

been  discovered  in  Egyptian  records  to  Joseph 
or  to  Moses,  but  in  an  old  papjTus,  dating 
from  about  1250  B.C.  [the  so-called  papyrus 
D'Orbiney],  a  story  has  been  found  which 
presents  an  exact  parallel  to  that  of  the 
temptation  of  an  adulterous  woman  as  it  is 
introduced  in  the  narrative  of  Joseph's  adven- 
tures. In  the  house  of  his  married  brother 
there  lived  a  younger  brother,  who  served  the 
elder  with  the  greatest  fidelity,  and  all  that  he 
did  prospered  in  his  hand.  Now  it  happened 
one  day  that  the  elder  brother  being  absent, 
the  younger  returned  to  the  house  from  the 
field  in  order  to  fetch  seed,  and  his  brother's 
wife  tempted  him.  But  he,  being  horrified, 
rejected  her,  and  hastened  back  to  his  work 
upon  the  field  without  saying  aught  of  what 
had  occurred  to  his  brother.  In  the  evening, 
when  her  husband  returned,  his  wife  pretended 
to  have  been  ill-treated  by  the  younger 
brotlier.  "  Then  the  elder  brother  became  as 
savage  as  a  panther,"  and  sought  to  kill  his 
brother,  but  he  was  saved  from  his  brother's 


INTRODUCTION  23 

wrath.^  In  any  case  this  old  Egyptian  story 
presents  a  remarkable  parallel  to  the  narra- 
tive of  Joseph's  temptation  by  the  Egyptian 
woman,  even  though  one  is  well  aware  that 
this  same  motive  of  the  slanderous  adulteress 
has  been  a  favourite  one  both  in  the  East  and 
in  the  West,  and  has  often  been  treated.^ 

A  story  similar  to  that  which  the  O.T. 
tells  us  of  the  prophet  Jonah  is  related 
in  a  Buddhist  narrative  of  one  Mitta-Vin- 
daka,  a  merchant's  son  of  Benares,  who 
went  to  sea  against  his  mother's  will  and  was 
exposed  by  the  sailors  on  a  raft  because 
the  lot  designated  him  as  the  cause  that 
hindered  the  ship's  journey.^  There  are 
several  stories  parallel  to  the  story  of  Jonah 
in  Greek  literature.* 

We  cannot  be  astonished,  therefore,  when  we 

1  Cf.  Erman,  Agypten,  pp.  505-508. 

^  Cf.  Paulus  Cassel,  Mischle  Sindhad,  Secundus  Syntipas^, 
1891,  esp.  pp.  1-24,  and  Fr.  Baethgen,  Sindban  oder  die 
siehen  wdsen  Meister,  1 878. 

3  Cf.  Z.  D.  M.  G.,  1896,  13. 

*  Cf.  K.  H-C,  xiii.,  p.  246. 


24  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

see  people  at  the  present  day  bringing  parallels 
together  from  every  possible  quarter,  from  India 
and  from  Greece,  from  Asia  and  from  Europe, 
and  inquiring  as  to  the  connection  between 
them.  Take,  for  instance,  the  numerous 
counterparts  of  the  story  of  Job,  who  answers 
his  wife's  angry  taunt,  "  Dost  thou  still  hold 
fast  thine  integrity,  renounce  God  and  die  ? " 
with  unruffled  calm  and  serene  wisdom.  In 
all  these  cases  a  shrewish  woman  appears  by 
the  side  of  a  patient  sage.  There  is,  first  of  all, 
the  wise  Tobit,  who,  with  the  sage's  serenity, 
endures  the  mockery  of  his  scolding  wife 
Hannah  as  she  taunts  the  blinded  man : 
"  Where  is  now  thy  mercy  and  thy  kindness  ? 
Behold  thou  thyself  art  evidence  of  what 
avail  all  that  has  been."  Then  there  is  Thales, 
who,  while  he  is  star-gazing,  falls  into  a  well 
and  the  maidservant  stands  by  and  laughs. 
There  is  Buddha  and  the  nun  Cinca,  who 
covers  him  with  reproaches  because  she 
pretends  to  have  been  slighted  by  him. 
There   is  Socrates  and  Xanthippe,  whose  ill- 


INTRODUCTION  25 

temper   the    philosopher    endures    with    calm 
indifference.^ 

Much,  it  is  true,  is  very  uncertain  in  the 
case  of  these  comparisons,  and  the  relation 
that  subsists  between  them  may  be  a  very 
different  and  a  very  complicated  one  that 
cannot  be  explained  in  the  same  way  in  all 
cases.  We  must  also  exercise  very  great  care 
in  weighing  the  evidence  of  such  traditions, 
for  supposing  one  were  to  discover  in  some 
African  tribe  at  the  present  day  stories  similar 
to  those  contained  in  the  Book  of  Genesis,  it 
would  by  no  means  be  impossible  that  a  direct 
connection  existed  in  historical  times  whereby 
the  biblical  stories  have  been  brought  to  this 
tribe  with  their  outline  already  firmly  fixed. 
Here  we  should  have,  therefore,  a  case  of  direct 
borrowing  of  an  already  formulated  story  and 
not  of  a  parallel.  But  it  cannot  be  denied, 
that  however  individual  and  peculiar  the  shape 
may   be   which   the   parallels    have    assumed, 

^  Cf.  K.    Fries,  Philosophical    Conversation  from   Job   to 
Plato,  1901.,  103-106. 


26  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

they  may  be  traced  back  in  the  last  resort  to  a 
common  origin.  Whether  this  common  origin 
is  ultimately  to  be  found  in  the  old  oriental 
Babylonian  astral  myths  and  the  idea  that 
there  is  an  exact  correspondence  between  the 
earth  below  and  the  heavens  above  —  an 
opinion  which  Winckler  more  especially 
maintains — is  exceedingly  improbable,  for  it  is 
scarcely  possible  to  suppose  that  all  this  mass 
of  legends,  common  to  so  many  peoples,  arose 
in  one  and  the  same  place,  or  that  it  appeared 
at  one  and  the  same  time/ 

However,  the  solution  of  this  problem  does 
not  affect  the  matter  with  which  we  are  here 
concerned.  P'or  this  much  at  any  rate  is 
incontrovertible  :  we  cannot  settle  the  question 
by  seeing  nothing  but  what  is  original  on  the 
part  of  Israel  and  nothing  but  copies  on  the 
part  of  the  other  nations,  nor  by  claiming  for 
Israel  at  least  the  first  literary  embodiment  of 

^  We  may  now  compare  especially  the  criticism  of 
Winckler's  thesis,  by  J.  C.  Matthes,  Israel iti.iche  Geschiede- 
nis  in  Tyler's  Theologisch  Tijdschrift. 


INTRODUCTION  27 

the  common  property.  For,  after  all,  in  every 
one  of  these  parallel  cases,  whenever  you  wish 
to  look  upon  the  matter  as  exclusively  Israelitic 
and  peculiar  to  the  Israelite  religion,  it  appears 
to  become  subject  to  some  solvent  influences 
and  vanishes  while  you  are  examining  it.  We 
cannot,  therefore,  escape  the  conclusion  that 
the  religious  evolution  of  the  people  forms  no 
exception  to  the  general  course  of  its  history. 
In  the  sphere  of  religion,  as  in  that  of  politics, 
influences  came  pouring  in  from  all  sides  on  the 
people  that  was  settled  in  Palestine ;  it  did  not 
remain  unaffected  by  the  spiritual  possessions 
of  the  Canaanites  into  whose  country  it  had 
forced  its  way  and  established  itself.  It  was 
stimulated  to  fresh  acti\dty  by  Eg}^pt  and 
Midian,  and  especially  by  Babylon  and 
Assyria. 

Thus  it  formed  at  once  the  bridge  over 
which  the  spiritual  possessions  of  the  great 
nations  who  had  attained  a  higher  stage  of 
civilization  than  the  people  of  Israel  passed 
hither  and  thither,  and  the   centre   in   which 


28  RELIGION   0¥  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

they  met.  We  may,  in  short,  infer  from  all 
that  has  been  said  that  a  very  hvely  exchange 
of  ideas  took  place  amongst  tlie  nations  of 
antiquity,  and  that  Israel  was  not  the  last 
to  take  up  the  motives  in  this  symphony  of 
peoples  and  to  be  powerfully  affected  by 
them. 

In  spite  of  all  that  has  been  alleged,  how- 
ever ;  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Israelitic 
matter  always  seems  to  be  on  the  point  of 
turning  into  that  which  is  common  to  the 
Semites  generally,  we  should  be  altogether 
prejudging  our  case  if  we  denied  the  religion 
of  Israel  its  peculiar  and  unique  character, 
and  looked  upon  it  as  nothing  more  than  the 
product  of  foreign  influence  or  as  an  ordinary 
variant  of  the  common  Semitic  religions.  To 
realize  how  precipitate  such  a  judgment  would 
be,  it  is  but  necessary  to  reflect  that  Ammon, 
Moab,  and  Edom  lived  under  essentially  the 
same  influences  and  traversed  the  same  political 
history,  but  they  liave  disappeared,  and  all  that 
has  remained  of  their  religions  is  the  name  of 


INTRODUCTION  29 

the  deity  they  worship.  But  there  is  still 
another  reason  which  should  guard  us  against 
such  precipitancy :  for  the  unique  character 
of  a  religion  is  to  be  judged  not  by  the  raw 
material  which  it  possesses  in  common  with 
others,  but  by  the  special  stamp  which  it 
impresses  upon  it. 

But  if  this  is  the  case,  then  it  will  be  all 
the  harder  to  assign  the  Israelite  religion  its 
right  place  amongst  the  religions  of  antiquity, 
for  the  matter  remains  the  same  even  though 
it  may  be  increased  by  additions  from  without, 
but  the  stamp  which  is  impressed  upon  it 
changes  in  the  course  of  history.  Now  as  far 
as  we  can  see,  the  Israelite  religion  experienced 
greater  changes  than  any  other  ;  it  is  never 
fixed,  never  stereotyped,  but  always  subject  to 
transformation.  We  may  succinctly  sum- 
marize these  transformations  by  distinguishing 
four  principal  phases.  First,  at  the  time  of 
the  origin  of  the  people  of  Israel  the  Israelite 
religion  is  that  of  a  Nomad  nation,  a  people  of 
Bedouins.     It  is  stamped  with  characteristics 


30  RELIGIOiN   OF  THE   OED  TESTAMENT 

which  are  traced  back  to  Moses,  and  which 
manifest  themselves  especially  clearly  at  the 
epoch  of  transition  to  the  settled  life  of  a 
peasant  people  in  Palestine.  For  at  that  time 
the  Israelites  did  not  simply  take  over  the 
peasant  religion  that  was  practized  in  Canaan, 
the  distinctive  features  of  the  old  Nomad 
religion  are  so  powerful  that  the  second  phase 
of  the  Israelite  religion,  the  peascuit  religion,  is 
distinguished  from  the  Canaanite  peasant 
religion. 

The  old  religion  was  therefore  powerful 
enough  to  maintain  itself;  in  fact,  it  remained 
so  powerful  that  the  2)Top/ietic  religion  which 
was  founded  by  the  great  prophets  appeared 
to  be  the  continuation  of  that  old  beginning, 
and  that  the  prophets  looked  upon  themselves 
as  merely  carrying  out  and  realizing  the  true 
intention  of  this  old  original  Israelite  religion. 
The  last  phase  of  this  development  was  the 
legal  religion,  which  may  be  looked  upon  as  a 
compromise  between  the  prophetic  religion 
and  that  of  the  peasants.    It  does  not,  therefore. 


INTRODUCTION  81 

present  a  homogeneous  whole,  but  forms  a  kind 
of  conglomerate  in  which  elements  have  been 
taken  up  from  the  whole  course  of  the  nation's 
history. 

As  this  legal  stage  is  the  last  in  the  evolution, 
and  as  it  has,  up  to  the  present  day,  been 
further  developed  by  the  adherents  of  the 
religion  of  Israel,  but  not  surpassed,  one  is 
apparently  justified  in  speaking  of  the  Israelite 
religion  as  one  usually  does,  i.e.  as  a  legal 
religion,  and  in  taking  this  phase  of  the  Israel- 
ite religion  as  really  characteristic  of  the 
nation's  faith  when  it  is  compared  with  other 
religions ;  this,  however,  is  not  the  case,  the 
justification  is  only  apparent.  This  is  clearly 
proved  by  the  fact  that  the  cultus  which 
played  an  important  part  at  this  stage  of  the 
nation's  development  is  the  very  thing  which 
is  not  peculiar  to  Israel,  but  was  practised  by 
the  Canaanites  and  the  Babylonians  as  well. 
But,  further,  we  are  bound  to  accept  this  con- 
clusion when  we  realize  that  religion  during 
this  phase  was  very  far  indeed  from  presenting 


32  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

any  homogeneous  features,  but  that  under  and 
in  the  hiw  the  after-effects  of  the  prophetic 
ideal  still  continued  to  operate,  and  imparted 
an  entirely  pecuhar  individuality  to  this  last 
period  of  the  Israelite  religion,  legal  religion 
though  it  be,  so  that  we  shall  do  better  to  speak 
of  it  as  a  legal  religion,  the  warp  of  which  was 
shot  through  with  many  prophetic  elements. 
Lastly,  the  chronological  sequence  of  the 
phases  cannot  of  itself  decide  the  question  as 
to  which  presents  the  characteristics  of  the 
Israelite  religion  most  markedly  and  enables 
us  to  reahze  its  unique  nature  most  decisively. 
The  history  of  religion  forms  no  exception  to 
the  laws  of  historical  development.  Here,  too, 
progress  is  not  denoted  by  a  line  which  mounts 
uninterruptedly  from  the  less  to  the  more 
perfect.  On  the  contrary,  history  varies  like 
the  tide;  there  are  times  when  it  seems  to 
recede,  times  of  retrogression  in  certain 
directions,  just  as  we  do  not  consider  the 
particular  form  wliich  Christianity  has  now 
assumed  in  Roman  Catholicism,  or  in  this  or 


INTRODUCTION  33 

that  Protestant  church,  as  the  highest  and  the 
best,  nor  do  we  judge  its  essential  character 
by  that ;  so  in  our  criticism  of  the  IsraeHte 
rehgion  we  must  try  to  discover  the  phase  in 
which  this  religion  is  developed  in  its  purity 
and  entirety,  and  in  which  it  manifests  its 
peculiar  characteristics  most  plainly. 

Now  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  was  in 
the  prophets  that  this  acme  of  the  Israelite 
religion  was  attained.  Firstly,  we  realize  in 
their  writings  most  clearly  what  it  is  that 
distinguishes  the  Israelite  religion  from  that 
of  other  nations,  and  then  we  have  already 
noticed  that,  while  on  the  one  hand  the 
prophetic  ideal  reverted  to  the  original  in- 
tentions of  the  religion  which  Israel  brought 
into  the  land  of  Canaan,  and  developed  these 
in  opposition  to  the  religion  of  Canaan,  so,  on 
the  other,  this  prophetic  religion  helped  to 
impart  a  characteristic  of  its  own  to  the  legal 
phase  of  religion  which  succeeded  it.  We 
must  turn  to  the  prophets  of  Israel,  then,  if  we 

would  know  the  essence,  the  unique  character 

3 


34  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

of  the  religion  of  Israel.  Not  only  do  we  here 
come  to  the  climax  of  the  religion  of  Israel 
during  the  whole  period  before  Christ,  but  its 
unique  features  are  here  presented  most  purely 
and  clearly,  to  repeat  once  more  what  we  have 
already  said,  in  most  unmistakable  opposition 
to  the  religion  of  Canaan,  as  the  continuation 
and  magnificent  development  of  the  original 
religion  of  Israel,  and  as  a  mighty  ferment 
which  imparted  a  character  of  its  outi  even 
to  the  legal  religion  and  did  not  suffer  the  law 
to  attain  to  the  sole  supremacy  in  Israel. 

The  mere  juxtaposition  of  this,  the  perfect 
flower  of  the  religion  of  Israel  with  the  other 
religions  of  the  East  during  antiquity,  will  not 
ensure  a  just  and  complete  judgment  as  to 
the  relation  of  these  religions  to  each  other. 
We  must  follow  the  course  of  history ;  we 
must  take  each  phase  by  itself,  and  compare 
it  with  that  religion  with  which  it  came  into 
contact.  Thus  we  shall  be  able  to  obtain  a 
picture  of  the  evolution  of  the  religion  of 
Israel    and    of    its    peculiar   features   in   the 


INTRODUCTION  35 

different  stages  which  it  traversed.  We  shall 
see  how  the  Israelite  religion  developed  amid 
influences  from  without  and  in  reacting  against 
them,  and  what  were  the  decisive  agencies 
which  led  it  along  the  path  it  was  destined  to 
follow. 


CHAPTER   1 

The  Nomad  Religion 

We  can  only  speak  of  an 'Israelite  religion 
from  the  time  when  there  was  a  people  of 
Israel.  It  is  not,  of  course,  meant  that  this 
religion  represents  something  absolutely  new, 
which  stands  in  no  kind  of  relation  to  the  past. 
On  the  contrary,  however  many  marks  of 
distinction  there  were,  it  was  bound  to  be  in 
closest  connection  with  the  past,  to  have  taken 
over  much  of  the  earlier  faith  and  merely  to 
have  modified  and  transformed  it,  for  religion 
does  not  begin  with  the  origin  of  a  people,  it 
already  exists  in  the  clans  or  families  before 
they  unite  or  coalesce  to  form  a  people. 

In   order   to   become   acquainted   with   the 
peculiar  nature  of  the  oldest  Israelite  religion, 

36 


THE  NOMAD  RELIGION  37 

it  is  therefore  important  to  discover  on  what 
soil  and  in  what  surroundings  the  people  of 
Israel  originated,  and  also  to  determine  from 
what  sources  its  different  component  parts 
flowed  together. 

Now  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  people 
of  Israel  was  formed  in  the  south  of  the  land 
of  Palestine.  The  Exodus  from  Egypt  was 
the  birthday,  the  peninsula  of  Sinai  the  birth- 
place, of  the  people  of  Israel.  That  is  the 
recollection  which  Israel  itself  had  preserved  of 
the  time  of  its  origin.  Before  the  sojourn  in 
Egypt  there  only  existed  an  Israelite  family, 
but  after  this  period  it  was  an  Israelite  people 
that  made  its  way  into  Palestine  from  the 
south  or  south-east.  Before  the  conquest 
of  Canaan  the  Israelites  had  no  fixed  dwelling- 
place  ;  they  wandered  about  the  peninsula  of 
Sinai  as  nomads  until  they  succeeded  in  con- 
quering a  home  of  their  own.  The  history  of 
the  making  of  Israel  shows  us,  therefore,  that 
the  people  was  in  touch  with  Egypt  and  the 
north  of  Arabia  ;   and  if  we  can  trust  these 


38  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

early  traditions  at  all,  the  relations  with 
Egypt  were  predominantly  hostile,  while  those 
with  the  Arabian  nomads  were  friendly.  At 
the  beginning  of  Israelite  history  there  is 
nothing  but  outspoken  opposition  to  Egypt, 
whereas  Israel  and  ISIidian,  i.e.  the  Bedouins 
of  the  peninsula  of  Sinai,  are  united  by  the 
closest  of  ties.  From  this  we  may  infer  that 
in  the  sphere  of  religion  also,  closer  points  of 
contact  may  be  expected  with  the  North 
Arabian  nomads  than  with  the  Egyptians. 

The  answer  to  the  question  as  to  the  origin 
of  the  different  component  parts  of  which  the 
people  of  Israel  was  composed  must  decide 
whether  this  expectation  is  fully  justified.  At 
first  sight  the  O.T.  religion  appears  to  indicate 
the  contrary.  It  points  to  the  East,  and  not 
to  the  South,  as  the  home  of  the  ancestors  of 
the  people  of  Israel.  It  was  from  the  East 
that  the  patriarch  Abraham  wandered  into  the 
land  of  Palestine,  and  when  his  descendants 
wish  to  return  to  their  relations,  they  betake 
themselves  to  Mesopotamia.     It  is  a  question, 


THE  NOMAD   RELIGION  39 

however,  whether  we  have  here  a  true  his- 
torical recollection  as  to  the  origin  of  the 
ancestors  of  Israel,  or  whether  we  cannot 
arrive  at  a  truer  substratum  under  the  mass 
of  superimposed  traditions.  It  is  certain 
that  in  pre-Israelitic  times  Mesopotamia  and 
Palestine  were  in  very  close  connection  with 
each  other.  Between  3000  and  2000  B.C., 
under  S argon  the  First  of  Agade,  the  political 
power  of  Assyria  once  reached  as  far  as  the 
Mediterranean,  and  the  discoveries  in  Palestine, 
which  date  from  pre-Israelitic  times,  have 
clearly  proved  that  Babylonian  civilization 
exercised  a  very  great  and  fjir  -  reaching 
influence  on  the  West.  As  evidence  of  this 
we  may  mention  not  only  the  cuneiform 
letters  which  came  from  Palestine,  and  have 
been  discovered  in  the  Egyptian  archives  of 
Amenophis  III.  and  IV.  in  El-Amarna,  but 
also  the  similar  documents  found  by  Sellin 
in  Ta'annek.  It  would  be  possible,  therefore, 
that  these  relations  were  reflected  in  the 
stories  of  the  immigration  of  the  patriarchs 


40  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

from  the  East,  the  more  so  as  we  possess 
no  knowledofe  from  other  sources  of  such 
voluntary  immioration  from  JNlesopotamia  into 
Palestine ;  and  further,  these  stories  about  the 
patriarchs  would  naturally  only  have  taken 
shape  when  Israel  was  settled  in  the  country 
and  the  tradition  was  developed  and  put  back 
into  the  distant  past. 

Whether  Abraham  really  came  from  Meso- 
potamia or  not  is,  however,  of  no  importance 
for  the  matter  before  us.  For,  in  the  first  place, 
no  nation  arises  by  the  mere  increase  of  a 
single  family,  and  it  would  only  be  from  the 
south  of  Palestine  that  the  kindred  families 
would  have  come  to  join  it ;  and,  in  the  second 
place,  it  is  extremely  doubtful  whether  such  a 
single  family  would  have  been  able  to  pre- 
serve its  character  in  the  totally  different 
surroundings  of  Syria  and  Palestine,  and 
certainly  not  to  impress  it  on  its  associates 
and  kindred.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  people 
of  Israel  presents  far  more  similarity  and 
relationship   at  the   beginning  of  its  history 


THE   NOMAD   RELIGION  41 

with  the  North  Arabians  than  with  the 
inhabitants  of  Mesopotamia  or  even  Northern 
Palestine. 

It  is,  therefore,  far  more  probable  that  the 
home  of  the  elements  which  later  coalesced 
to  form  the  people  of  Israel  was  in  Arabia,  and 
it  will  be  nearer  the  truth  if  we  suppose  a 
direct  northern  immigration  into  Palestine, 
with  some  digressions,  no  doubt,  but  not  a 
complete  diversion,  by  way  of  Babylon.  This 
view,  that  Arabia  was  originally  the  home  of 
the  peoples  of  the  Semitic  world,  harmonizes 
too,  as  Winckler  ^  more  especially  reminds  us, 
with  the  great  movements  of  the  peoples  which 
are  known  to  us  in  Hither  Asia,  and  best 
accounts  for  the  successive  appearances  of  the 
Semitic  peoples  on  the  scene  of  history.  We  can 
readily  understand  that  a  country  like  Arabia  is 
only  capable  of  supporting  a  certain  number  of 
people,  and  that  the  surplus  population  should 
be  forced  to  emigrate  into   the  neighbouring 

^  Cp.  his  recent  work,  Auszug  aus  der  V order asiatischen 
Geschichte,  19^5,  pp.  2-4. 


42  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

fertile  countries,  whereas  the  hypothesis  of  a 
return  to  the  inhospitable  desert  is  neither 
probable  nor  can  it  be  proved  historically. 
The  first  migration  of  the  surplus  population 
of  the  desert  turned  to  the  nearest  fertile 
country — that  is  to  say,  INIesopotamia  ;  it  took 
place  between  4000  and  3000  B.C.,  and  resulted 
in  the  establishment  of  a  Semitic  population 
in  the  country  of  the  Euphrates.  About  five 
hundred  years  later  a  second  swarm  had  to 
leave  the  parent  hive,  and  this  migration  lasted 
for  rather  more  than  a  thousand  years  :  it  may 
be  that  the  advance  guard  of  this  army  turned 
again  towards  Babylon ;  the  main  body,  how- 
ever, and  the  rear  advanced  to  the  north,  and 
a  portion  turned  aside,  for  a  time,  to  Egypt, 
and  there  took  up  its  abode.  Amongst  the 
component  parts  of  this  swarm  of  peoples  we 
may  mention  the  Phoenicians,  the  pre- Israeli  tic 
inhabitants  of  Canaan  (the  Amorites  and 
the  Canaanites),  the  Israelites,  the  Edomites, 
the  JMoabites,  and  the  Ammonites.  Scarcely 
had   this   last   group   conquered   a   home    for 


THE   NOMAD   RELIGION  43 

themselves  in  the  fertile  country  when  the 
third  wave  began  to  break  which  brought  the 
Arameans  to  the  north.  It  came  to  an  end 
with  their  settlement  in  Syria  and  in  the  north 
of  JMesopotamia — that  is  to  say,  between  the 
Babylonians  and  the  Canaanites.  This  move- 
ment also  lasted  about  a  thousand  years,  from 
about  1500  to  500  B.C.  Close  in  the  track  of 
the  Aramean  wave  followed  the  Arabian, 
which  lasted  till  the  seventh  century  a.d., 
inundating  the  whole  of  the  Semitic  world, 
and  extending  even  beyond  Egypt  to  the 
Atlantic  and  to  Europe.^ 

No  other  conclusion  is  therefore  possible 
than  that  the  origin  and  the  religion  of  the 
people  of  Israel  belongs  to  that  second  great 
movement  by  which  the  surplus  population  of 
Arabia  was  carried  away  to  the  north.  Long 
after  the  forerunners  of  this  migration  had 
settled  in  Palestine,  the  Israelite  people  was 
formed  in  the  south  of  Palestine  by  the 
coalition  of  a  number  of  kindred  clans.     The 

^  Cp.  Winckler,  op.  cit.,  p.  3  seq. 


44  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

connection  of  the  Israelites  with  Egypt  had 
only  been  transitory,  and  had  also  probably 
been  limited  in  extent,  wliereas  their  con- 
nection with  their  nomad  kindred  from 
Arabia  was  constant.  In  order  to  understand 
the  original  religion  of  Israel,  it  will  therefore, 
as  we  have  already  remarked,  be  of  little  use 
to  turn  to  Egypt  and  the  Egyptian  religion. 
Although  at  least  a  portion  of  the  ancestors 
of  the  later  people  of  Israel  sojourned  for  a 
time  on  Egyptian  soil,  and  witliin  the  sphere 
of  Egyptian  power,  no  trace  of  Egyptian 
influence  can  be  demonstrated  in  the  oldest 
religion  of  Israel ;  whatever  features  in  the 
later  stages  of  development  remind  us  of  the 
Egyptian  religion  are  to  be  referred  with  far 
greater  probability  to  Egyptian  influence 
during  the  Canaanite  period  than  to  original 
borrowing  at  the  time  of  the  Exodus.  It  is, 
in  any  case,  unnecessary  to  presuppose  a 
connection  with  Egypt  in  order  to  explain 
the  presence  of  a  sacred  ark  amongst  the 
Israehtes.      For,  on  the  one  hand,  the  com- 


THE   NOMAD   RELIGION  45 

parison  of  the  ark  of  Jahwe  with  the  box-hke 
seats  of  Egyptian  deities^  is  scarcely  justified, 
for  an  ark  and  a  seat  are  different  things,  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  need  of  any 
particular  reference  to  the  Egyptian  sacred 
ark^ — D.  Volter  especially  compares  this  Osiris 
(  =  Joseph)  ark^ — for  sacred  shrines  were  very 
generally  used  in  the  heathen  religions  :  a  plain 
proof  of  this  even  at  the  present  day,  as  Stade 
reminds  us,*  is  the  employment  of  reliquaries 
in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

The  history  of  the  origin  of  the  people  of 
Israel  shows  us,  therefore,  that  the  oldest 
Israelitic  religion  is  to  be  counted  amongst 
its  nearest  neighbours,  the  old  Semitic  nomad 
religions.  Now  it  would  be  easy  to  draw  a 
picture  of  this  religion  had  we  at  our  disposal 
direct   information   dating   from   this   earliest 

^  Cp.  Meinhold,  Die  Lade  Jahwes,  1900,  and  in  Theol. 
Stud,  und  Krit.,  1901,  593-617. 

^  Cp.  the  picture  of  one  in  Erman,  Die  aegyptische 
Religion,  1905,  52. 

3  Aegypten  und  die  Bihel,  1904^,  pp.  95  seq. 

*  Biblische  Theologie  des  Alien  Testaments,  I.  (1905),  117. 


46  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 


time ;  but  we  have  no  such  original  docu- 
ments, eitlier  concerning  Israel  or  the  kindred 
nomad  tribes :  we  are  limited  to  later  recol- 
lections and  inferences  as  well  as  comparisons 
with  the  nomads  who  remained  stationary 
in  the  old  conditions.  AVith  these  means  at 
our  disposal  we  must  endeavour  to  set  forth 
the  difference  between  the  original  religion  of 
Israel  and  that  of  the  Semitic  nomads  from 
whom  Israel  issued. 

Israel  preserved  many  features  of  this  early 
nomad  age  in  its  later  history.  It  was  not 
all  that  looked  upon  the  transition  to  the  life 
of  a  settled  agricultural  population  in  Palestine 
as  an  unmixed  blessing.  The  bold  song  of 
Lamech  ^  strikes  our  ear  like  an  echo  from  the 
old  times  of  the  Bedouins,  a  time  when  the 
strict  law  of  the  Jus  talionis  was  as  yet  unknown, 
when  vengeance  still  had  free  play :  just  such 
a  song  one  might  have  heard  on  the  lips  of  a 
hero  of  the  Arabian  Antar  romance  or  of  any 
proud  Bedouin  chieftain : 

1  Gen.  iv.  23  scq. 


THE   NOMAD   RELIGION  47 

"  Ada  and  Silla  hear  my  words. 
Ye,  wives  of  Lamech,  hearken  unto  my  speech  : 
A  man  I  slay  for  my  wounds, 
And  a  boy  for  my  bruises  ; 
Cain  may  avenge  himself  seven  times, 
But  Lainek  seventy  and  seven  times," 

Amongst  the  peasants  too  many  clung  to 
the  customs  of  the  old  nomad  life.  Even  as 
late  as  the  time  of  Jeremiah  the  Rechabites 
despised  wine  and  refused  to  plough  the 
ground  or  to  live  in  houses.^  In  the  eyes  of 
the  prophets,  the  time  before  the  immigration 
into  Canaan  was  the  age  of  Israel's  love  to 
Jahwe,  and  the  entrance  into  the  cultivated 
land  was  the  beginning  of  corruption.^ 

IS!  en  have  at  all  times  been  more  conser- 
vative in  the  sphere  of  religion  than  in  any- 
thing else.  Rites  and  ceremonies  are  retained 
even  when  their  original  signification  is  no 
longer  understood,  or  has  actually  had  to 
make  way  for  a  new  one.  In  this  manner 
many  characteristics  of  the  nomad  age  were 
preserved  with  wonderful  tenacity  in  the  later 

^  Jer.  XXXV. 

2  Cp.,  e.g.,  Jer.  ii.  2 ;  Am.  v.  25  ;  Hos.  ix.  10,  x.  1. 


48  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

stage  of  the  religion  of  Israel ;  the  old  cus- 
toms have  even  remained  current  among  the 
inhabitants  of  the  country  when  there  was 
no  longer  any  people  of  Israel.  They  have 
outlasted  Judaism  in  those  countries,  and 
have  not  been  ousted  either  by  Christianity  or 
by  Mahomedanism.  It  is  only  quite  recently 
that  this  fact  has  been  established.  We  knew 
indeed,  from  the  observations  of  Goldziher,^ 
W.  R.  Smith,^  Wellhausen,^  and  from  the 
incidental  remarks  of  travellers,  what  a  flood 
of  light  is  thrown  upon  the  origins  of  the 
Israelites'  religion  by  many  ancient  customs 
which  are  still  current,  especially  amongst  the 
Arabians  before  and  after  the  rise  of  Islam, 
which  merely  covered  these  peoples  with,  as  it 
were,  a  thin  veneer ;  it  is  only,  however,  the 
systematic  inquiries  of  S.  I.  Curtiss^  that 
have   revealed   the   amazing   quantity   of  old 

^  Muhammcdanische  Studien,  1889  and  1890. 

2  Lectures  on  the  Religion  of  the  Semites^,  1 894. 

3  Rexte  arab.  Heidentums,  1887,  ^1897. 

*   Ursetnitische  Religion  im  Volkslehen  des  heutigen  Orients, 
1903. 


THE   NOMAD   RELIGION  49 

religious   rights   which  have  subsisted  to  this 

day  in  the   East   amongst   the  population   of 

Syria  and  Palestine.     The   material  needs,  it 

is  true,  to  be  carefully  sifted ;  it  is  not  every 

ceremony  that  can  be  looked  upon  as  having 

descended  from  old  Semitic  times  in  the  dress 

which  it  wears  to-day.     But  whoever  is  really 

acquainted  with   Semitic   antiquity  will   have 

no   great   difficulty  in   removing  the   modern 

layers   which   have   covered  up  in  process   of 

time  the  valuable  ancient  picture. 

We  must  not  forget  either  that  even  in  the 

old  Semitic  nomad  religion  we  have  no  unmixed 

and  homogeneous  whole.     The  nomad  religion 

at  the  time  of  the  origin  of  the  people  of  Israel 

is  not  the  original  religion,  not  the  beginning 

of  religion  altogether,  it  is  the  product  of  a 

long  process  whereby  a  whole  mass  of  different 

elements    has   coalesced.      Historical   inquiry 

will  hardly  succeed  in  going  back  to  the  first 

origins ;   it   has   to  begin   its   examination   at 

some   particular    time    accessible    to   history, 

and  all  that  it  can  do  is  to  conclude,  from  the 

4 


50  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

different  nature  of  the  elements,  that  their 
sources  too  were  different,  and  that  the  various 
streams  only  gradually  flowed  into  one. 
With  this  it  must  content  itself  until  credible 
documents  of  an  earlier  period  give  accurate 
and  complete  information  as  to  the  religion 
of  the  past,  or  some  other  more  certain  way 
to  analyse  the  later  product  has  been  dis- 
covered. 

The  most  characteristic  feature  of  the  old 
Semitic  nomad  religion  is  polydemonism,  i.e. 
the  belief  in  divine  (demonic)  powers,  in  spirits. 
Many  traces  of  this  belief  have  been  preserved 
in  the  O.T.  religion,  and  also  in  the  popular 
religion  of  the  Syria  and  Palestine  of  to-day. 
It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  mention  instances 
in  the  O.T.  of  the  behef  in  divine  powers 
inhabiting  stones,  trees,  springs,  and  animals. 
We  may,  however,  refer  to  the  sacred  stone 
of  Bethel,  which  gave  the  place  its  name,  as  it 
is  called  "a  house  of  God"  (bet  elohim') ;  to 
the   sacred  oracular  tree  at  Sichem  '^ ;  to  the 

1  Gen.  xxviii.  22.  ^  Gen.  xii.  6 ;  Deut.  xi.  3. 


THE   NOMAD   RELIGION  61 

sacred  wells  at  Kadesh^  and  at  Beersheba.^ 
As  for  the  belief  in  demonic  animals,  it  will 
be  sufficient  to  remind  ourselves  of  the  dis- 
tinction between  clean  and  unclean  animals, 
which  is  to  be  explained  not  by  any  natural 
feeling  of  aversion,  but  only  by  religious 
scruples ;  there  is  also  the  Nehushtan,^  the 
brazen  serpent  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem, 
the  origin  of  which  is  referred  to  the 
Nomad  Age. 

The  Israelitic  mourning  customs  are  clear 
indications  of  the  old  belief  in  spirits ;  even 
though  they  are  not  all  to  be  ascribed  to  the 
same  time  and  do  not  all  symbolize  the  same 
thoughts,  yet  one  feature  is  common  to  all 
alike — a  superhuman  character  is  attributed  to 
the  dead.  This  is  the  case  if,  as  is  most  prob- 
able, the  original  intention  of  the  mourning 
customs  was  to  protect  oneself  from  the  spirits 
of  the  dead.  "  The  loud  screams  in  the  lamen- 
tation  for   the   dead   were   intended  to  scare 

1  Gen.  xiv.  7.  2  Gen.  xxi.  28-30,  31. 

8  2  Kings  xviii.  4 ;  Num.  xxi.  4-9. 


52  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

away  the  spirit.  The  mourning  garments, 
the  strewing  of  ashes  on  the  head,  the  cutting 
off  of  the  hair,  the  disfigurement  and  mutila- 
tion of  the  body,  were  all  meant  to  make  the 
mourners  unrecognizable.  The  deceased  man 
was  to  be  prevented  from  recognizing  those 
to  whom  he  had  stood  in  the  most  intimate 
relation,  in  case  he  should  happen  to  return 
to  his  former  surroundings.  The  tearing  of 
the  clothes  is  merely  a  device  to  disguise  the 
mourners  as  quickly  as  possible.  The  cover- 
ing up  of  the  head  or  of  the  beard  is  meant 
to  hinder  the  dead  man's  spirit  from  rushing 
into  the  mourner's  body  through  his  nose  or 
his  mouth,  like  some  modern  bacillus."^  This 
explains,  too,  why  great  stone  cairns  were 
heaped  up  over  the  corpses  of  criminals ; 
through  the  superincumbent  mass  their  spirits 
were  to  be  confined  to  the  earth,  and  so  pro- 
tection would  be  secured  against  them.^ 

1  Cp.  Beer,  Dcr  biblischc  Hades  in   Theol.   Abkandhmgen. 
Festgabe  fiir  H.  T.  Holtzmann,  1902,  l6  seq. 

2  Compare  Josh  vii.  26,  viii.  29 ;  2  Sam.  xviii.   1 7  (vide 
Beer,  op.  cit.,  18). 


THE   NOMAD   RELIGION  63 

At  the  time   of  the   origin  of  Israel  it  is 
probable  that  fear  of  the  spirits  of  the  dead 
had  ceased  to  be  operative  amongst  the  mass 
of  the  people ;   the  relation  to  the  dead   had 
probably  become  a  more  familiar  one,  so  that 
men  did  not  primarily  endeavour  to   protect 
themselves   against   them,  but   rather  wished 
to   remain   in   some  kind  of  connection  with 
them.     The  old  customs  which  continued  un- 
changed lost  their  deterrent  character.     They 
were  understood  and  explained  as  symbolizing 
a  sacramental  union  with  the  dead,  and  others 
were  added  which  possessed  these  character- 
istics  still  more  plainly.     Such,  for  instance, 
was  the  offering  up  of  sacrifices  and  gifts  to 
the   deceased.      The    belief   in    the    demonic 
power    of    the    dead    remained    unimpaired ; 
they   are   the   "  elohim "   and   the    "  knowing 
ones  "  (Jiddeonim)  who  know  the  future  and 
determine  the  fate  of  their  descendants  and 
relations  who   live   upon  the  earth.       Hence 
by  means   of    oracles   one   can   derive   infor- 
mation from  them  as  to  the  course  of  future 


54  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

events/  We  cannot,  therefore,  be  surprised 
that  worship  was  offered  up  to  the  dead  and  to 
heroes,  and  that  the  tombs  of  ancestors  and 
heroes  so  often  appear  as  places  of  worship, 
as,  e.g.^  the  grave  of  Miriam  at  Kadesh.^ 

It  is  in  connection  with  this  worship  paid 
to  ancestors  and  the  dead  that  the  family  and 
the  clan  appear  as  associations  for  purposes  of 
worship.  As  an  instance  of  this  we  may 
mention  the  very  frequent  occurrence  of 
personal  appellations,  which  contain,  besides 
the  name  of  God,  a  second  element  expressing 
a  degree  of  relationship — that  is  to  say,  they 
go  back  originally  to  a  time  when  the  Deity 
was  regarded  as  a  relation  of  the  bearer  of 
the  name,  e.g.  as  father,^  brother,*  uncle,^ 
or  cousin.®  The  family  continued  to  be  an 
association  for  purposes  of  worship  for  a  long 
time  after  the  conquest.  An  instance  of  this 
is  the  family  festival  of  the  kindred  of  Jesse  at 

^   1  Sam.  xxviii. ;  Isa.  viii.  19,  xxviii.  15,  18;  Deut.  xviii. 
10  seq.  2  Num.  xx.  1. 

^  Cp.  Abiel,  1  Sam.  ix.  1.  *  Ahiah,  1  Sam.  xiv.  3. 

^  'Ammiel,  2  Sam.  ix.  4.  ^  Dodo,  Judges  x.  1. 


THE   NOMAD   RELIGION  66 

Bethlehem.^     The  effects  of  this  old  institution 
can  be  traced  even  in  very  late  O.T.  times.^ 

Naturally  a  great  deal  was  believed  and 
practised  in  the  stage  of  polydemonism,  which 
was  considered  later  to  be  superstition  and 
magic  ;  and  many  sacred  customs  known  to  us 
from  the  O.T. — e.g.  the  taking  off  of  sandals 
in  a  sacred  place,^  the  changing  or  cleansing 
of  one's  clothes  before  performing  a  sacred 
action* — go  back  to  the  Nomad  Age,  as  is  proved 
by  their  presence  amongst  the  heathen  and 
Moslem  Arabs.  It  would  be  impossible  here 
to  mention  all  the  single  instances,  but  it  is 
important  to  remember,  as  a  striking  charac- 
teristic of  the  nomad  religion,  that  sacrifices 
were  very  far  from  playing  the  important  part 
they  did  later.  Sacrifices  were  offered,  no 
doubt,  but  by  no  means  as  frequently  as  in 
later  times.  They  were  rare  festivals ;  it  was 
only  on  quite  especial  occasions  that  sacrifices 
were  offered.     For  the  most  part  it  will  have 

^   1  Sam.  XX.  6.  2  Zech.  xii.  12-14. 

8  Ex.  iii.  5  ;  Josh.  v.  15,       *  Gen.  xxxv.  2  ;  Ex.  xix.  10. 


56  RELIGION   OF  THE   OED   TESTAMENT 

been  some  grievous  calamity,  e.g.  sickness  of 
man  or  beast,  against  wliich  they  sought  to 
protect  themselves  or  which  they  tried  to 
avert.  If  we  may  judge  by  all  that  is  still 
told  us  of  the  Arabian  Bedouins,  and  that  is 
still  practised  to-day  in  Palestine  and  Syria, 
blood  played  an  important  part  in  these  cere- 
monies. The  doorposts  and  the  lintel  of  the 
house  were  smeared  with  it  as  at  the  Pesach,^ 
or  the  necks  and  the  flanks  of  animals,  as  the 
Bedouins  do  to  this  day  in  times  of  cattle- 
plague,  or  a  mark  was  made  in  the  sacred 
place  with  the  blood  of  the  sacrifice,  as  still 
happens  in  Palestine.^  The  conception  of 
sacrifice  was  therefore  different  to  wliat  it 
came  to  be  later ;  it  was  not  as  yet  considered 
as  a  gift  which  was  brought  to  the  Deity  in 
order  to  dispose  it  favourably,  but  as  a  means 
of  establishing  a  close  connection  with  it  and 
of  obtaining  the  clearest  possible  proof  of  the 
relationship  with  it,  and  of  sym.boHsing  this  in 

1  Ex.  xii.  '21-23,  276. 

2  Cp.  Curtiss,  op.  cit.,  pp.  206-226. 


THE   NOMAD   RELIGION  67 

a  vivid  manner.  There  was  a  sacramental 
communion  between  the  Deity  and  its  wor- 
shippers by  means  of  blood.  The  custom  will 
probably  have  come  down  from  the  earliest 
times,  when  the  demons  were  mostly  supposed 
to  inhabit  the  earth,  of  letting  the  blood  of 
the  sacrifice  flow  down  to  the  earth  or  through 
a  runnel  into  some  subterranean  cavity.  We 
can  easily  understand  that  at  this  stage  of 
religious  development  no  altars  were  needed, 
and  that  the  arrangements  for  the  places  of 
sacrifice — for  this  is  what  the  altars  were 
originally — were  very  primitive.  A  single 
natural  boulder  ^  was  sufficient  for  the  purpose, 
and  it  is  clearly  a  survival  from  the  old  time 
when  the  oldest  law  in  Israel  only  allowed 
"  altars,"  i.e.  sacrificial  sites,  to  be  of  earth  or 
unhewn  stones.^ 

It  is  not  easy  to  say  what  were  the  pre- 
dominant feelings  called  forth  amongst  the 
Semitic  nomads  by  this  religion.  It  is 
extremely   improbable,    however,  tliat   it  was 

1  1  Sam.  xiv.  33.  2  Ex.  xx.  24-26. 


58  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

especially  fear  which  filled  the  Semites  in  the 
presence  of  the  divine  powers.  For  these 
powers  were  not  only  such  as  did  them  harm  ; 
there  were  beneficent  deities  too,  who  afforded 
them  protection  and  prosperity,  not  only  by 
leading  them  to  precious  springs  and  fruitful 
oases  in  the  midst  of  desolate  regions,  but  also 
by  taking  the  family  and  the  clan  under  their 
protection.  And,  besides,  the  means  of  averting 
any  harm  that  might  be  inflicted  were  well 
known,  and  so,  too,  were  the  means  of  keeping 
open  communication  with  the  friendly  demonic 
powers.  It  cannot  be  said,  however,  that  any 
trace  of  a  moral  influence  exercised  by  these 
divine  powers  on  their  worshippers  is  to  be 
noticed.  For  they  were  entirely  lacking  in 
the  characteristics  of  personality ;  and  they 
continued  to  suffer  from  this  defect,  even 
though,  in  course  of  time,  some  acquired  real 
personal  names.  All  that  we  can  assume  is 
that  if  different  tribes  possessed  a  common  site 
for  their  cultus,  either  in  some  oasis  or  on  a 
mountain,  they  were  bound  to  a  truce  of  God, 


THE   NOMAD   RELIGION  59 

to  friendly  intercourse,  and  to  a  cessation  of  all 
hostility  within  the  sacred  precincts  and  in  the 
sacred  time. 

Such  are  the  general  characteristics  which 
mark  the  heathen  nomad  religion,  such  is 
the  soil  in  which  the  people  of  Israel  grew  up, 
such  the  foundation  upon  which  the  Israelitic 
nomad  religion  was  built  up.  The  distinctive 
features  of  this  latter  religion  must  now  be  set 
forth.  The  most  striking  is  this  :  the  Israelites 
have  a  God  whom  they  consider  to  be  their 
God,  while  they  look  upon  themselves  as  His 
people.  It  is  true  that  faith  in  the  divine 
powers  continued  to  exist  concurrently,  but 
the  God  who  cares  for  the  existence  of  the 
people  of  Israel  and  for  their  wellbeing.  He 
who  has  cognizance  of  the  concerns  of  the 
whole  nation,  is  Jahwe.  He  is  the  God  of  the 
people  of  Israel,  and  Israel  is  His  people. 

It  is  difficult  as  yet  to  determine  exactly 
what  the  name  of  "  Jahwe  "  signified  originally ; 
but  it  is  equally  difficult  to  suppose  that  the 
Israelites,  from  the  very  first,  connected  with 


60  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

it  the  meaning  of  "existence."^  More  im- 
portant tlmn  tlie  original  significance  of  the 
name  is  the  question  as  to  its  origin,  for  it  is 
not  a  genuine  IsraeUtic  word,  as  might  seem 
to  be  the  case  when  one  considers  the  subse- 
quent Hmitation  of  its  use  to  Israel.  We  may 
indeed  neglect  the  uncertain  traces  of  its  use 
in  Babylon  and  in  pre-Israelitic  Canaan.-  But 
the  Israelitic  tradition  itself  closely  connects 
Moses,  the  creator  of  the  people  of  Israel  and 
the  founder  of  the  Israelitic  religion  and  its 
priesthood,  with  the  priest  of  the  Midianites, 
his  father-in-law,^  and  ascribes  the  impulse  to 
his  work  of  liberating  the  Israelites  from  the 
Egyptian  bondage  to  Jahwe,  the  God  of  Sinai 
(Horeb),  in  the  land  of  the  Midianites.*  It  is 
also  extremely  probable  that  we  may  infer 
from  the  story  of  Cain  and  AbeP  that  the 
Kenites,  who  continued  to  live  as  nomads  even 
in  later  times  amongst  the  Israelites  when  they 

1  Ex.  iii.  14.  2  Cp.  supra,  p.  l6  seq. 

8  Ex.  ii.  21,  xviii.  *  Ex.  iii. 

'•>  Gen.  iv.  2-1 6a. 


THE   NOMAD   RELIGION  61 

had  settled  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  bore  as  their 
tribal  mark  the  sign  of  Jahwe,  which  served 
as  a  protection  to  them,  but  is  also  a  proof  that 
they  worshipped  Jahwe  in  very  early  times ; 
and  this  is  corroborated  by  the  fact  of  their 
close  relationship  with  the  Midianites.^  We 
may  infer,  therefore,  that  the  name  of  Jahwe 
was  originally  attributed  to  the  God  of  the 
Mount  of  Sinai  (Horeb) — that  is,  that  it  be- 
tokens the  God  who  was  supposed  to  dwell 
there,  and  it  may  very  well  be  supposed  that  He 
was  conceived  as  the  God  of  the  higher  sphere, 
as  the  God  of  the  air  and  of  storms  as  distin- 
guished from  the  divine  powers  of  the  earth 
more  properly  so  called.  This  is  the  conception, 
too,  which  best  harmonizes  with  the  modes  of 
His  revelation  as  they  are  represented  to  us — cp. 
the  burning  bush,^  the  thunder  and  lightning,^ 
as  well  as  that  representation  of  the  theophany, 
under  the  picture  of  a  storm,  which  remained 

^  Judges  i.   16,  iv.  11;    cp.  Stade,   Das   Kainszeichen  in 
Z.  A.  T.  W.,  1894.,  250-318. 

2  Ex.  iii.  2-5.  8  Ex.  xix. 


62  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

a  constant  ftivoiirite.  Besides  the  Kenites,  the 
different  tribes  which  in  later  times  composed 
the  people  of  Israel  evidently  stood  in  relation 
to  Jahwe  of  Sinai  (Horeb).  Probably  JSIount 
Sinai  was  the  central  place  of  assembly  and 
the  common  place  of  worship  of  different 
Semitic  tribes  whilst  they  sojourned  in  those 
districts.  Afterwards  some  of  these  tribes 
passed  over  into  Egypt,  and  Moses  appeared 
amongst  them  as  the  messenger  of  Jahwe,  the 
God  of  their  fathers/ 

But  even  though  Jahwe  was  originally 
the  name  of  the  God  of  Sinai,  it  immediately 
received  a  higher  significance  under  the 
Israelites  than  that  which  it  had  possessed 
as  the  God  of  the  confederate  tribes  of 
Mount  Sinai.  The  reason  is  this :  Jahwe 
manifested  Himself  in  history  by  the  liberation 
of  the  Israelites  from  the  Egyptian  bondage, 
He  led  them  safely  to  Kades,  and  there  united 
them  with  the  kindred  tribes  to  form  one 
people.     A    further   reason  is  to  be  found  in 

1  Ex.  iii.  16. 


THE   NOMAD   RELIGION  63 

the  fact  that  He  not  only  fortified  Israel  in  its 
external  relations,  but  guided  the  internal 
affairs  of  the  young  people  to  a  prosperous 
issue,  making  wise  arrangements  for  the 
federation  of  the  different  tribes,  which  did  not, 
however,  involve  the  abandonment  of  their  own 
tribal  constitution,  and  regulating  the  relations 
of  the  different  members  of  the  people  to  each 
other.  It  was  the  holy  place  at  Kades  where 
the  first  stage  of  the  work  of  the  liberation  and 
development  of  the  people  of  Israel,  which  had 
been  begun  in  Egypt,  was  completed.  In  this 
neighbourhood  the  Israelites  sojourned  for  a 
long  time.  The  instrument  which  Jahwe  used 
in  order  to  make  known  His  power  both  in 
Egypt  and  at  Kades  was  Moses,  the  leader  of 
the  people  and  the  prophet.  He  is  the  first  in 
the  series  of  those  great  men  of  Israel  whom 
we  call  prophets.  He  belongs  to  this  series, 
for  he  was  not  a  writer,  nor  primarily  a  law- 
giver, even  though  he  directed  the  people 
by  word  of  mouth  in  the  name  of  Jahwe  at 
the  holy  place,  but  he  is  only  rightly  under- 


64  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

stood  when  he  is  conceived  as  a  propliet  whose 
work  originated  in  the  divine  revelation,  whose 
purpose  was  the  estabhshment  of  the  divine 
power,  and  whose  method  was  the  proclamation 
of  the  divine  will. 

Thus  the  religion  of  Israel  was  founded,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  that  most  important  develop- 
ment was  initiated  which  leads  up  through  the 
later  prophets  to  Jesus  Himself.  From  the 
very  beginning,  in  the  nation's  infancy,  we  can 
already  trace  the  germ  and  potentiality  of  the 
future  magnificent  development.  The  nation's 
very  first  steps  were  taken  in  the  direction 
which  led  to  the  highest  goal :  this  we  realize 
as  we  notice,  firstly,  that  the  ideal  of  later  ages 
is  nothing  else  than  the  further  development 
of  principles  laid  down  by  Moses,  and,  secondly, 
that  in  the  ethical  demands  which  the  prophets 
made  they  w^re  conscious  of  being  in  harmony 
with  the  origins  of  the  religion  of  Israel.  The 
emphasis  which  was  laid  upon  this  social  and 
ethical  side  of  the  religious  demands,  in  con- 
sequence  of  the  concurrent  formation  of  the 


THE   NOMAD   UELKIION  65 

people  and  of  the  religion  of  Israel,  and  the 
purity  which  characterized  the  ethical  aspira- 
tions of  the  nation,  distinguish  the  religion  of 
Israel,  even  at  this  early  time,  not  only  from 
the  nomad  religions  of  the  Semitic  heathen, 
but  also  from  the  religions  of  Moab  and  of 
Ammon,  which  also  possessed  a  tribal  god. 
The  contents  of  the  second  part  of  the  double 
proposition,  Jahwe  the  God  of  Israel  and 
Israel  the  people  of  Jahwe,  and  the  demands 
which  it  included,  elevate  Jahwe  far  beyond 
the  category,  not  only  of  the  demonic  deities 
of  the  common  Semitic  nomad  religion,  but 
also  of  the  tribal  gods  of  the  religions  of 
Ammon  and  of  Moab,  and  impart  a  markedly 
peculiar  character  to  the  religion  of  Israel  from 
the  earliest  days.  Jahwe  is  the  God  of  the 
people  of  Israel,  not  absolutely  the  only  God  ; 
there  exist  beside  Him  not  only  the  divine 
powers  that  were  worshipped  in  earlier  times, 
but  also  the  gods  whom  foreign  tribes  or 
other  groups  of  peoples  regarded  as  their  tribal 

or  national  gods.     But  Jahwe's  claims  on  His 

5 


66  RELIGIOxN   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

people  were  of  a  quite  peculiar  nature ;  there 
was  nothing  like  them  anywhere  else,  or,  at 
any  rate.  He  demanded  their  fulfilment  with 
a  peculiar  emphasis. 

If  we  bear  these  distinctive  features  of  the 
Israelite  nomad  religion  in  mind,  we  shall  not 
be  surprised  to  find  that  sacrifice  occupied  a 
comparatively  unimportant  place  in  it.  Sacri- 
fices were,  it  is  true,  probably  offered  up  from 
time  to  time  to  Jahwe,  and  not  only  to  the 
demonic  powers,  but  the  little  importance 
which  is  attached  to  them  is  evident  from  the 
fact  that  the  prophets  could  maintain  that  in 
the  desert  no  sacrifices  had  been  offered  up  to 
Jahwe,  ^  and  even  that  at  the  Exodus  Jahwe 
had  laid  down  no  regulations  in  matters  of 
sacrifice.^  We  are  told,  too,  and  the  statement 
harmonizes  'vvith  the  preceding  account,  that 
originally  it  was  not  the  priest's  task  to  sacri- 
fice ;  they  had  other  things  to  do  ;  it  was  open 
to  anyone  to  sacrifice.  The  priest's  office  was 
rather  to  make  known  the  will  of  the  Deity  to 

1  Am.  V.  25.  2  jer.  vii.  22. 


THE   NOMAD   RELIGION  67 

inquirers,  and  to  give  them  directions  how  to 
solve  the  various  problems  which  life  presented 
to  them — how  to  interpret  the  omens  which 
they  came  across,  and,  supposing  they  por- 
tended anything  evil,  how  it  was  to  be  averted. 
So  it  had  been  among  the  nomads,  and  so  it  was 
now  among  the  new  people  of  Israel.  Jahwe's 
priest — he  that  revealed  the  will  of  Jahwe  to 
the  people — was  the  prophet  Moses ;  he  was 
not  only  His  chief  priest,  but,  at  the  begin- 
ning, His  only  priest.  Later  on  he  had  suc- 
cessors, whose  office  was  to  continue  his 
work  in  his  spirit.  To  interpret  Jahwe's  direc- 
tions to  the  people,  that  was  the  task  of  the 
priests  of  Jahwe  ;  for  many  years  to  come 
they  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  celebration 
of  the  sacrifices,  just  as  little  as  had  the 
old  priests  of  the  divine  powers.  The  prophet 
and  the  priest  did  not  stand  in  opposition 
to  each  other  originally. 

Many  portions  of  the  Semitic  nomad 
religion  were  naturally  thrust  into  the 
background    at    the    advent    of  the   faith   in 


68   RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

Jahwe  as  the  God  of  Israel.  Thus  the 
power  of  the  "  demons "  was  bound  to  de- 
cline, their  influence  was  circumscribed,  and 
gradually  they  degenerated  into  mere  jinns 
and  pale  ghosts.  Beside  Jahwe  the  God  of  the 
whole  people,  both  -^-ithout  and  within,  no 
single  one  of  them  was  able  to  attain  to  any 
prominence,  to  any  importance  approaching 
that  of  Jahwe.  Either  they  continued  to  be 
worshipped  clandestinely  and  in  secret  or  they 
were  degraded  to  demons  in  the  later  sense  of 
the  word,  or  else — there  was  no  other  alternative 
— their  worship  was  merged  in  that  of  Jahwe. 
There  was  thus  no  soil  in  Israel  in  which 
polytheism  could  take  root.  A  great  many 
practices  that  were  taken  over  from  the  old 
Semitic  times  lost  their  orimnal  significance 
in  the  course  of  the  transfer,  or  had  already 
been  emptied  of  their  meaning  more  or  less ; 
as  instances  we  may  mention  the  mourning 
customs  and  many  others  that  were  originally 
connected  with  tlie  old  Semitic  religion.  In 
other    cases,   however,  the   transition  to   the 


THE   NOMAD   RELIGION  69 

Israelite  religion  was  marked  by  elevation  into 
a  higher  sphere.  This  was  a  process  which 
continued  to  occur  in  after  times  as  well,  and 
thereby  many  things  that  were  taken  over 
from  their  pagan  forefathers  were  legitimized 
amongst  the  later  Israelites.  The  most  im- 
portant instance  of  this  process  in  the  earliest 
age  of  the  Israelite  religion  is  connected  with 
the  sacred  ark.  The  origin  of  the  ark  is 
probably  to  be  placed  a  good  deal  earlier  than 
the  time  of  the  founding  of  the  Israelite 
religion  ;  for  though  this  religion  was  perfectly 
distinct  from  the  Semitic  nomad  religion, 
it  shared  the  use  of  the  ark  with  many  of 
its  Semitic  nomad  neighbours.^  The  sacred 
shrine  dates,  therefore,  from  pre-Mosaic  times  ; 
it  either  belonged  to  the  most  important  tribe  in 
the  Israelite  confederacy  or  to  the  pre-Mosaic 
cult  of  Jahwe.  In  any  case  it  acquired  a  new 
significance ;  it  came  to  be  the  sanctuary  of 
Jahwe,  the  God  of  the  people  of  Israel.  The 
presence  of  Jahwe  is  bound  up  with  that  of 

1  Fide  supra,  p.  44. 


70  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

the  sacred  ark,  Jahwe  tlie  God  of  Israel  and 
not  any  other  Semitic  deity  of  olden  times, 
Jalnve  as  His  prophet  Moses  revealed  Him  and 
not  as  His  pre-lNIosaic  worshippers  understood 
Him.  A  similar  process  of  transmutation 
took  place  in  many  other  instances  :  old  insti- 
tutions, rites,  and  ceremonies  were  brousht 
into  connection  with  Jahwe.  Sometimes  the 
transformation  was  very  gradual,  and  was  only 
effected  at  a  late  period  in  the  course  of  the 
people's  history :  as  instances  of  this  we  may 
mention,  the  laws  relating  to  food^  and  to 
circumcision.^ 

The  Israelite  nomad  religion  stands  out  in 
striking  contrast  from  the  background  of  the 
common  Semitic  nomad  religion  from  which 
it  originated.  Compared  with  the  common 
polydemonism,  it  is  a  prophetic  popular  religion. 
Jahwe  is  the  God  of  the  people,  and  the  internal 
social  development  is  His  concern  as  well ; 
that  is  why  the  germs  which  in  after  times 
developed    so    clearly   into    ethical    demands 

1  Deut.  xiv.  1-21.  2  yifig  supra,  p.  14. 


THE   NOMAD   RELIGION  71 

existed  in  the  infancy  of  the  rehgion  of  Israel. 
By  the  side  of  Jahwe  the  people  of  Israel  is 
not  allowed  to  honour  any  other  god  as  its 
god.  The  old  deities  recede,  and  there  is  no 
room  for  polytheism,  for  the  belief  in  many 
gods  as  the  gods  of  the  people  of  Israel. 
Other  peoples  may  have  their  own  gods ; 
Israel's  God  is  Jahwe,  and  none  other  is  to  be 
worshipped  beside  Him.  JNIonolatry  is  the 
hall-mark  of  the  old  Israelite  faith. 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Peasant  Religion 

The  Israelites  came  into  a  new  world  when 
they  entered  into  Canaan.  The  inhabitants 
whom  they  found  in  the  country  had  once 
been  nomads ;  like  themselves  they  had  been 
in  the  vanguard  of  that  great  migration  of 
peoples  to  which  the  Israelites  also  belonged, 
which  had  thrust  one  nation  after  another  in  a 
northerly  direction  out  of  Arabia.  But  they 
had  now  been  settled  for  many  centuries  in 
the  country,  and  had  in  the  meantime  aban- 
doned their  nomad  life,  having  become  an 
agricultural  population  in  accordance  with  the 
requirements  of  the  nature  of  the  land.  They 
lived  in  towns  wliich  were  surrounded  with 
walls,  and  also  in  open  villages. 

72 


THE   PEASANT   RELIGION  73 

When  the  Israelites  appeared  on  the  borders 
of  Palestine  they  found  that  the  country  had 
already  attained  to  a  stage  of  civilization  which 
must  have  appeared  very  considerable  to  these 
immigrants  from  the  desert ;  it  had  for  some 
time  past  been  exposed  to  the  influences  exer- 
cised by  the  old  centres  of  civilization,  Egypt 
and  Babylon.  This  f^ict  has  been  definitely 
estabhshed  by  the  recent  excavations  in 
Palestine,  although  we  are  really  only  at  the 
beginning  of  this  enterprise,  and  thus  the 
result  of  the  discoveries  at  El-Amarna  in 
Egypt  has  been  completed  in  a  very  welcome 
manner.  The  inscriptions  there  found  proved 
that  Babylonian  cuneiform  was  known  in 
Palestine  as  early  as  about  1400  b.c.  For 
amongst  the  letters  discovered  at  El-Amarna, 
in  the  archives  of  the  kings  Amenophis  III. 
and  IV.,  there  are  some  written  by  the  king 
Abdi-Chiba  of  Jerusalem  (Urusalim),  and  other 
Palestinian  vassals,  to  their  Egyptian  overlord. 
Quite  apart  from  the  historical  value  of  the 
contents  of  these  letters — they  present  a  very 


74   RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

vivid  picture  of  the  chaotic  confusion  of 
political  circumstances  in  Palestine  just  before 
the  arrival  of  the  Israelites — the  mere  fact 
that  Palestinian  princes  wrote  to  the  Pharaoh 
on  clay  tablets  in  the  Babylonian  cuneiform 
and  in  the  Assyrian  language  affords  us 
irrefutable  evidence  of  the  important  influence 
exercised  at  this  early  date  by  the  Babylonian- 
Assyrian  civilization  in  the  nearer  East.  It 
is  Sellin's  discovery  of  the  little  archive  of 
the  Prince  of  Ta'anak  Istarwasur,  however, 
which  he  found  in  the  course  of  his  excava- 
tions at  Tell-Ta'annek,  and  which  belongs  to 
about  the  same  period  as  the  letters  of  El- 
Amarna,  that  proves  the  very  far-reaching 
extent  of  this  influence,  and  that  shows  us 
that  the  Assyrian- Babylonian  writing  and 
language  were  not  confined  to  international 
intercourse  and  the  use  of  diplomatists.  At 
least  twelve  tablets  in  cuneiform  have  been 
brought  to  light,  containing  partly  letters 
exchanged  between  different  princes  in 
Palestine,  partly  lists   of  names,  e.g.  of  the 


THE   PEASANT   REIJGION  75 

contingents    which    different    places    had    to 
furnish  to  the  arniy.^ 

Besides  this,  however,  it  has  been  clearly 
established  that  Egyptian  influence  was  by 
no  means  insignificant.  The  most  interesting 
evidence  of  this  twofold  current  from  the 
south  as  well  as  from  the  north  is  contained  in 
the  seal-cylinder  of  a  Canaanite  discovered  by 
Sellin  at  Ta'anak.  It  contains  a  Babylonian 
picture  of  two  figures  of  deities,  or  perhaps 
of  a  deity  and  a  priest,  with  a  Babylonian 
legend,  "  Atanachili,  son  of  Chabsi,  servant 
of  Nergal,"  and  also  a  column  covered  with 
Egyptian  hieroglyphics,  the  sign  of  life,  and 
underneath  a  bird.  This  seal  is  supposed  to 
date  from  the  year  2000  b.c.^  As  evidence 
of  the  influence  exercised  by  Egypt  in  ancient 
times,  we  may  mention  the  scarabs,  which  have 
hitherto  been  discovered  in  great  quantities 
wherever  excavations  have  been  undertaken  in 


*  Cp.  Sellin,  Tell  Ta'annek,  I904.,  113-122,  and  M.  u.  N. 
des  D.  P.  v.,  1905,  33-37. 
2  Op.  cit.,  27  seq. 


76  RELIGION   OF   THE    OLD   TESTAMENT 

Palestine,  and  '•'  which  are  almost  as  character- 
istic of  the  adherents  of  the  Eg^^-ptian  religion 
as  the  cross  is  of  those  of  the  Christian.""  ^  The 
excavations  undertaken  by  the  English,  the 
inscriptions  and  pictures  of  Eg^-ptian  deities 
which  thev  have  broucfht  to  h^ht  at  Tell-es- 
Safi  and  Gezer.  prove  that  this  Ecn^-ptian  influ- 
ence was  especially  active  in  the  south  :  but 
at  Ta-anak.  too.  Sellin-  has  discovered  the 
Egyptian  god  Bes  in  a  figure  made  of  bright 
green  porcelain :  and  besides  tliis,  the  dis- 
coveries that  have  been  made  thus  far.  estabhsh 
the  fact  that  the  influence  of  Eg-)-ptian  ci\'iliza- 
tion  during  this  early  period  from  2000-1000 
B.C.)  lasted  lono-er  than  the  Babvlonian.  and 
that  it  was  still  verv  strono-  at  the  time  when 
Israel  conquered  the  country.  This  conclu- 
sion is  in  complete  harmony  ^^ith  all  that  the 
O.T.  tells  us  as  to  the  history  of  Israel.^ 

But   if   Palestme   was   exposed   in   such   a 

^  Erman,  Agi/pten  und  iigyptisches  Lebcn  im  AUertum,  427. 
2   Op  cit.,  88  seq. 

5  Cp.   Sellin,   Dcr   Erirog   der  Ausgrahurigtrn   im    Orient , 
1905,  25-^9. 


THE   PEASANT  RELIGION  77 

measure  and  during  so  long  a  time  to  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Babylonian  and  Egyptian  civihza- 
tion,  then  we  may  infer  from  this  fact  that  the 
degree  of  culture  to  which  the  inhabitants  of 
the  land  had  attained  was  by  no  means  incon- 
siderable. Very  much,  no  doubt,  came  over 
into  Palestine  from  Babylon  and  from  Egypt 
of  which  no  direct  traces  are  any  longer  to  be 
obtained.  Sellin  rightly  reminds  us  that  if 
one  nation  borrows  another's  script,  this  implies 
an  exceedingly  active  intellectual  intercourse 
and  a  very  considerable  exchange  of  ideas 
between  the  two  peoples.  The  art  of  writing 
in  the  borrowed  script  had  to  be  taught  and 
learnt.  Whether  the  teachers  came  from 
Babylon  to  Palestine,  or  the  scholars  travelled 
from  Palestine  to  the  Euphrates,  in  either  case 
portions  of  the  Babylonian- Assyrian  literature 
thus  became  known  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Palestine  during  the  writing  lessons ;  nor  was 
their  knowledge  limited  to  their  copy-book 
headings  ;  but  we  may  be  sure  that  a  great  deal 
was  imparted   to  them   orally  by  the  Baby- 


78  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

lonians.  When  once  such  connections  had  been 
estabUshed,  then  it  was  not  only  writers  who 
travelled  from  one  country  to  another,  but 
petty  traders  and  merchants  as  well ;  and  these 
did  not  merely  seek  to  sell  their  wares,  but 
furthered  the  exchange  of  ideas.  We  ought 
not,  therefore,  to  be  astonished  to  find  parallels 
on  the  Euphrates  or  the  Nile  to  portions  of 
the  later  Hebrew  literature,  or  that  allusions 
should  occur  which  can  only  be  explained  by 
presupposing  Babylonian  or  Egyptian  tradi- 
tions. 

If  the  civilization  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Palestine  differed  from  that  of  the  Israelite 
nomads,  their  religion,  too,  was  distinct  from 
that  of  Israel.  All  that  can  be  inferred  in 
this  matter  from  the  O.T.  is  confirmed  by  the 
excavations,  which  complete  our  knowledge 
and  render  it  extraordinarily  vivid.^ 

In  the  first  place,  it  has  been  established  that 

1  Sellin  has  summarized  the  results  both  in  Tell  Ta'annek, 
pp.  103-112,  and  also  in  De?-  Ertrag  der  Ansgrabungen  im 
Orient,  pp.  29-33. 


THE   PEASANT   RELIGION  79 

the  Canaanites  worshipped  a  number  of  gods  ; 
thus  tlie  names  Hadad  and  Bel  (  =  Baal),  Istar 
( =  Astarte),  and  Aschirat  have  been  deciphered 
in  documents ;  besides  this  we  have  Amon 
from  Egypt  and  Nergal  from  Babylon,  whose 
servant  the  Canaanite  Atanachili  son  of 
Chabsi  calls  himself  on  the  seal-cylinder  that 
we  have  just  described.^  The  only  picture  of 
these  gods  that  can  be  identified  with  certainty 
hitherto  is  that  of  Astarte ;  it  exists  in  many 
copies  and  under  various  forms,  mostly  made 
of  clay,  but  sometimes  also  of  bronze.  The 
form  seems  to  have  varied  according  to  the 
different  towns  (the  Astartes  of  Ta'anak  have 
a  crown,  those  of  Lachis  have  nothing  on  the 
head,  and  two  of  Gezer,  as  well  as  one  of 
Ta'anak,  have  horns).  Almost  everywhere 
Astarte  is  to  be  recognized  as  the  mother  of 
life  by  the  holding  up  of  the  breasts.  The 
remaining  pictures  of  gods  represent  Egyptian 
deities :  Bes,  Ptah,  Secht,  Isis,  with  the  child 
Horus ;   but  these  were  probably  worshipped 

^  Vide  supra,  p.  75. 


80  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAxMENT 

only  by  Egyptians  established  in  the  country 
and  not  by  Canaanites. 

Furthermore,  the  excavations  have  proved 
that  the  practice  of  offering  up  children  in 
sacrifice  prevailed  to  a  very  large  extent  among 
the  Canaanites.  So,  too,  the  building  sacrifice 
must  have  been  customary — the  offering  up 
of  a  human  being  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  demon  of 
the  site  of  the  house.^  Sacrifices  were  also  in 
all  probability  offered  up  to  the  dead,  for 
various  arrangements  have  been  discovered 
which  can  scarcely  have  served  any  other 
purpose  than  to  conduct  the  libations  to  the 
dead  man's  grave. 

The  various  rock  altars  exposed  by  the  ex- 
cavations, or  still  to  be  found  on  the  earth's 
surface,  are  of  great  importance.  They  are 
altars  constructed  in  the  manner  which  was 
forbidden  by  the  old  Israelite  law^;  for  how- 
ever primitive  they  are  compared  with  the 
later  artificial  constructions,  they  have  been 
hewn  out  of  the  rock  and  provided  with  a 

1  1  Kings  xvi.  34.  2  £x.  xx.  25  seq. 


THE   PEASANT   RELIGION  81 

step.^  Altars  of  this  kind  have  been  found  in 
various  places,  that  of  Petra  deserving  especial 
mention.^  Very  numerous  Massebahs  have 
been  discovered  in  the  course  of  the  excava- 
tions. These  stone  pillars,  hewn  monoliths, 
were  taken  to  be  the  symbols  of  the  holy 
places,  as  they  were  originally  thought  to  be 
the  abode  (whether  permanently  or  for  a  season) 
of  the  deity  that  was  there  worshipped.  In 
later  times  they  were  prohibited  by  the  law 
as  being  of  Canaanite  origin.^  We  may  here 
already  make  mention  of  the  altar  of  incense 
which  Sellin  has  discovered.  It  is  in  the 
shape  of  an  ordinary  conical  baking  oven, 
gradually  narrowing  towards  the  top,  and  pro- 
vided with  the  necessary  holes  for  ventilation. 
It  belongs,  it  is  true,  to  the  Israelite  period, 
but  it  contains   mythological   representations 

^  Vide  supra,  p.  57. 

2  Cp.  George  L.  Robinson,  M.  u.  N.  dcs  D.  P.  V.,  1901, 
21-32;  H.  Guthe,  ib.,  1905,  49-56;  S.  T.  Curtiss,  Ursemil. 
Rel.,  1903,  307-325  ;  and  R.  E.  Briinnow  and  A.  v.  Domas- 
zewski.  Die  Provincia  Arabia,  1904',  i.  239-247. 

3  Cp.  Deut.  xii.  3. 

6 


82   RELKilON   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

which  clearly  go  back  to  an  earlier  period. 
This  earlier  date  certainly  applies  to  the  two 
pictures  in  relief.  The  first  of  these  represents 
a  little  boy  killing  a  serpent,  which  stands  up- 
reared  before  him  with  open  mouth.  On  the 
other  we  see  a  tree,  and  on  either  side  are  two 
mountain  goats  climbing  up  a  hill  and  turning 
round  their  heads  to  snap  at  the  top  of  the 
tree.  Of  a  like  earlier  date  are  the  winged 
animal  shapes  with  faces  of  men  or  of  lions, 
which  are  on  either  side  of  the  altar  in  relief. 
All  these  pictures  remind  us  of  foreign 
Babylonian- Assyrian  myths  and  mythological 
figures,  of  the  myths  of  the  slayers  of  serpents 
or  dragons,  of  the  tree  of  life  with  the  creatures 
surrounding  it,  and  of  the  mythological  figures 
of  the  cherubim,  or  even  of  the  colossal 
Assyrian  bull  with  the  human  head.  If  we 
further  remember  the  ram's  horn,  the  symbol 
of  Baal,  then  this  altar  enables  us  to  reahze  a 
very  important  chapter  in  the  history  of 
religion.  It  represents  and  embodies  the 
influence  of  the  Assyrian-Babylonian  and  the 


THE    PEASANT   RELIGION  83 

old  Canaanite  religions  on  Israel.  The  great 
quantities  of  scarabs  and  pearls  which  served 
amongst  the  Canaanites  and  Israelites  as 
amulets,  prove,  as  we  have  already  mentioned, 
that  the  influence  of  Egypt  was  likewise  not 
inconsiderable. 

The  information  which  we  derive  from  the 
excavations,  concerning  the  religion  of  the 
Canaanites,  with  whom  the  Israelites  came 
into  contact  when  they  left  the  desert,  is 
exceedingly  valuable.  The  stage  of  the  mere 
belief  in  demons  is  past.  It  is  true  that  they 
believe,  and  that  very  firmly,  in  all  manner  of 
demons  and  spirits ;  this  is  proved  by  the 
numbers  of  amulets,  and  also  by  the  human 
sacrifice  that  is  offered  up  at  the  building  of  a 
house.  But  individual  deities  stand  out  from 
the  great  mass  of  demons,  and  these  were  plainly 
imagined  to  be  personal  gods,  such  as  Astarte 
and  Baal  by  the  side  of  Hadad  and  Aschirat. 
It  is  impossible  to  infer  from  the  discoveries 
that  have  been  made,  what  especial  sphere 
of  influence  they  occupied,  even   though,  as 


84   RELIGION   OF  THE    OLD   TESTAMENT 

we  have  already  mentioned,  the  pictures  of 
Astarte  would  lead  one  to  gather  that  she  was 
worshipped  as  the  mother  of  life  ;  on  the  other 
hand,  it  is  certain  that  the  sacrificial  system 
was  very  greatly  developed.  This  is  proved 
by  the  great  number  of  skeletons  of  children 
that  have  been  found  lying  side  by  side,  and 
which  certainly  point  to  the  practice  of  the 
sacrifice  of  children,  perhaps  of  the  first-born. 
Besides  this,  we  have  the  numerous  arrange- 
ments for  altars  which  have  been  discovered. 
It  may  certainly  be  inferred,  from  the  fact  of 
human  sacrifice,  that  libations,  and  especially 
blood-libations,  played  an  important  part  in 
the  cultus.  More  than  this  cannot  be  de- 
finitely established  as  regards  the  cultus  and 
its  rites  and  ceremonies :  we  may,  however, 
possibly  infer  from  the  arrangements  of  several 
altars^  that  the  Canaanites  offered  sacrifices 
to  the  dead. 

This  picture  of  the  Canaanite  religion  may 
be   completed   from   the   O.T.      In  the   first 

^    Fide  i-iipra,  p.  80. 


THE   PEASANT  RELIGION  85 

place  O.T.  names  of  places  that  come  down 
to  us  from  pre-Israelitic  times  are  of  import- 
ance, for  they  tell  us  something  of  the  religion 
which  once  prevailed  in  the  country.  It  is 
unimportant  how  far  back  they  go  in  this 
earlier  period,  in  any  case  they  show  us  what 
influences  were  at  work  among  the  population 
of  the  country.  Thus  we  may  infer  from  the 
name  Bet-semes  (  =  house  of  the  sun  ^)  that  the 
sun  was  once  worshipped  in  Canaan,  even 
though  we  cannot  decide  whether  Babylonian 
or  Egyptian  influence  was  here  at  work,  or 
whether  the  one  prevailed  after  the  other  or 
both  operated  together.  The  horses  of  the 
sun,  which  were  later  worshipped  in  the  temple 
at  Jerusalem,  do  not  come  under  this  category, 
for  they  are  to  be  traced  to  a  later  borrowing 
from  the  Assyrians  in  the  reign  of  Manasseh.^ 
In  fact,  the  Babylonian- Assyrian  worship  of 
the  host  of  heaven  (the  sun,  the  moon,  planets, 
etc.)    had   made   its   way   into    Judea    before 

^  1  Sam.  vi.  9. 

2  2  Kings  xxiii.  5,  11. 


86  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

Josiah's  reign. ^  Similarly  names  of  places, 
such  as  Bet-'Anat  -  and  'Anatot,  prove  that 
in  old  times  the  Phoenician  goddess  'Anat 
had  worshippers  in  Canaan,  though  we  cannot 
decide  with  certainty  whether  this  name  is 
to  be  identified  with  Antu,  the  wife  of  the 
Babylonian  god  Anu.^  Again,  in  the  name 
Be-'estera,*  which  is  probably  to  be  identified 
with  Bet-'Estera,  i.e.  house  of  Istar,  we  have  a 
new  proof  of  the  worship  of  the  goddess  Istar. 
Lastly,  the  name  of  the  place  Saphon  ^  reminds 
us  of  the  Phoenician  god  of  the  same  name,  and 
in  Ba'al-Gad*^  and  JNIigdal-Gad,'  the  second 
part  probably  denotes  Gad,  the  goddess  of  for- 
tune,^ which  can  be  traced  in  proper  names  in 
nearly  all  the  Semitic  peoples,  and  is  perhaps 
contained  in  the  Hebrew  tribal  name  Gad.^ 
Several  other  deities  have  therefore  been  wor- 


^  Cp.  Zeph.  i.  5  ;  also  Deut.  xvii.  3  ;  Jer.  viii.  2  ;  Ez.  viii. 
l6  seq. 
2  Judges  i.  33.  3  Cp.  K.  A.  T.^,  353. 

*  Jos.  xxi.  27.  ^  Judges  xii.  1. 

6  Jos.  xi.  17.  ^  Jos.  XV.  37. 

8  Cp.  Isa.  Ixv.  11.  9  Cp.  K.  A.  T.^,  479- 


THE   PEASANT  RELIGION  87 

shipped  in  Palestine  besides  those   that  have 
been  made  known  to  us  by  the  excavations. 

The  O.T.  also  furnishes  us  with  further 
indications  concerning  the  nature  of  the 
cultus  that  was  practised  in  Palestine  by  the 
Canaanites  that  were  conquered  by  Israel. 
Even  though  all  this  information  comes  down 
to  us  from  a  very  much  later  period,  and  even 
though  the  writers  are  only  acquainted  with 
the  product,  the  result  of  the  mixture  of  the 
Israelite  and  the  Canaanite  religion,  yet  in 
very  many  cases  the  recollection  of  that  which 
was  originally  foreign  persisted  in  undiminished 
force,  and  later,  as  is  well  known,  the  attempt 
was  made  to  purify  the  Israelite  religion  from 
the  heathen  leaven.  We  may  also  recognize 
the  new  additions  by  a  comparison  of  the 
religion  which  Israel  brought  into  the  country 
with  that  which  it  possessed  after  it  had  lived 
in  Canaan  for  some  centuries,  and  so  we  are 
able  to  determine  what  must  have  been  the 
nature  of  the  Canaanite  religion  which  influ- 
enced Israel. 


88   RELIGION   OF  THE   OI-D   TESTAMENT 

The  chief  mark  of  distinction  between 
the  rehgion  of  Israel  in  the  desert  and  in 
Canaan  is  the  cultus.  In  the  one  case  it  was 
almost  entirely  absent,  Jahwe  demanded  no 
sacrifices  ^ ;  in  the  other  He  is  honoured 
frequently  and  zealously  with  sacrifices, 
great  festivals  are  regularly  celebrated  in  His 
name,  and  throughout  the  whole  country 
He  possesses  many  sanctuaries.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  about  it,  the  sacrificial 
cultus  is  in  its  main  features  a  Canaanite 
institution  appropriated  by  Israel  after  the 
conquest.  Thus  the  prophets  regarded  it : 
the  Deuteronomic  law,  with  its  prohibition 
of  the  sacred  places  outside  of  Jerusalem, 
concurs  in  this  judgment,  and  between  the 
lines  of  the  old  stories,  too,  which  legitimized 
the  various  sacred  places  in  Canaan  by  appari- 
tions of  Jahwe  to  the  patriarchs,  we  can  clearly 
read  the  object  —  to  prove  Jahwe's  right  to 
the  sacrificial  places  in  Canaan.  But  the 
cultus  is  most  intimately  connected  with  the 

1  Fide  supra,  p.  66. 


THE   PEASANT  RELIGION  89 

practices  of  agriculture ;  the  festivals  are 
agricultural  festivals  which  are  adapted  to 
the  nature  of  the  land  and  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  soil.  There  is  nothing  in  the 
cultus,  therefore,  which  is  inconsistent  with  the 
theory  of  Canaanite  origin,  and  many  individual 
features  connected  with  these  festivals  clearly 
arose  outside  of  Israel.  Thus  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  institution  of  the  Kedeshas  who 
offer  themselves  up  in  honour  of  the  Deity  in  the 
sacred  place  is  to  be  derived  from  a  Canaanite 
custom,  and  the  license  which  usually  prevailed 
during  the  festivals  in  the  sacred  places  has  more 
in  common  with  the  glad  thanksgiving  festivals 
for  rich  harvest  in  field  and  vineyard  (festivals 
which  arose  in  the  fruitful  plain)  than  with 
the  sacrificial  feasts  in  the  desert,  which  were 
of  a  more  serious  character,  because,  for  the 
most  part,  they  were  occasioned  by  calamities, 
which  had  to  be  averted.  The  simplicity  of  the 
desert  must,  of  course,  have  been  abandoned 
for  some  time  past  in  the  external  arrangement 
of  the  holy  places  when  the  festivals  were  of 


90  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

such  a  merry  nature  and  recurred  so  fre- 
quently ;  fixed  altars  came  to  be  the  rule  ;  and, 
soon,  covered  buildings  will  have  been  erected 
at  the  more  important  holy  places,  both  for 
the  Deity,  which  was  represented  in  some  kind 
of  image,  and  for  the  worshippers.  There  is 
no  trace  of  any  ennobling  influence  exercised 
by  the  Canaanite  religion  on  the  morals  of  its 
adherents,  nor  can  such  be  expected  when 
Kedeshas  and  license  prevailed  in  the  very 
centre  of  the  religion. 

The  Canaanite  peasant  religion,  with 
which  the  Israehtes  came  into  immediate 
contact,  is  therefore  no  simple  and  homo- 
geneous whole,  but  is  composed  of  the 
most  varied  elements.  Amongst  the  oldest 
elements  which  the  Canaanites  themselves 
formerly  brought  with  them  from  the 
desert  is  polydemonism — the  belief  in  the 
more  or  less  constant  presence  of  spirits  in  all 
manner  of  living  beings  or  dead  objects.  This 
belief  in  spirits  and  in  their  magic  influence 
did   not   meet   with   anything  to    hinder    its 


THE    PEASANT   RELIGION  91 

development.  On  the  contrary,  many  foreign 
influences  furthered  its  growth,  and  all  that 
it  met  with  in  the  country  contributed  to 
make  it  prevail.  The  influence  of  the 
Babylonian-Assyrian  religion,  which  never 
got  beyond  the  stage  of  belief  in  spirits  and  in 
magic,  could  not  but  promote  polydemonism, 
and  the  Egyptians  furnished  great  quantities 
of  scarabs  as  amulets.  INIoreover,  the  fertile 
lowlands  proved  to  be  inhabited  by  mighty 
spirits  in  far  greater  numbers  than  the  barren 
uplands,  where  the  nomads  dwelt  in  tents. 
By  the  side  of  fountains,  rivulets,  and  lakes  ;  in 
the  fruitful  field,  where  all  manner  of  things 
grew  luxuriantly,  where  evergreen  trees  were 
to  be  found,  where  corn,  and  wine,  and  oil 
were  to  be  obtained,  where  the  herds  of  cattle, 
of  sheep,  and  of  goats  increased,  there  mighty 
spirits  were  the  lords  of  the  land ;  they  were 
the  Ba'als  of  all  these  localities ;  nor  was  the 
abode  of  such  spirits  supposed  to  be  confined 
to  the  earth.  The  fertility  of  the  land  in 
Palestine  was  supposed  to  depend   upon  the 


92  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTA^IENT 

rain ;  the  spirits  were  lords  of  the  air  as  well, 
and  hved  in  the  stars,  which  were  imagined 
from  of  old  to  have  an  influence  upon  the 
weather. 

The  beUef  in  spirits  underwent  an  important 
modification  however.  The  spirits  were  no 
longer  all  of  them  counted  as  indefinite  and 
quite  indefinable  beings:  some  acquired  a 
rather  more  personal  character  ;  there  arose  at 
least  a  distinction  of  sex,  and  a  proper  name 
was  added  to  the  Ba'al  or  Ba'alat  of  the  place  ; 
the  name  Astarte,  which  the  female  deity 
received,  seems  to  indicate  that  it  was  Baby- 
lonian influence  which  contributed  to  bring 
about  this  development  in  the  personification 
of  these  divdne  powers  and  to  the  distinction 
between  them,  for  it  is  scarcely  possible  to 
doubt  the  identification  of  Astarte  with  the 
Babylonian  goddess  I  star.  Astarte  must  have 
been  the  object  of  especial  veneration,  for 
many  pictures  have  already  been  found  of  this 
goddess,  whereas  no  single  image  of  Ba'al  has 
been  discovered  in  the  soil  of  Palestine.     It  is 


THE  PEASANT  RELIGION  98 

no  doubt  possible  that  this  may  be  accounted 
for  by  the  fact  that  Astarte  was  the  goddess 
of  the  home  and  of  the  increase  of  the  family, 
whereas  the  images  of  Ba'al  were  not  kept  in 
the  house,  and  have  therefore  disappeared. 
The  distinctions  that  were  thus  gradually 
made  between  these  spirits  caused  the  transi- 
tion from  polydemonism  to  polytheism  to  be 
effected  very  easily :  we  are  not,  therefore, 
surprised  to  find  that  other  deities  found  ready 
access  to  the  Canaanites.  as  we  have  already 
seen  fix)m  the  evidences  of  the  excavations  and 
the  old  names  of  places.^  The  demons  were 
easily  identitied  with  the  foreign  gods,  and 
were  called  by  their  name  whenever  similar 
functions  were  ascribed  to  both.  The  names 
Xergal  and  Amon.  which  occur  in  old  docu- 
ments.- show  us  that  foreijm  influences  were 
at  work,  both  from  the  east  and  fit)m  the  south- 
west, brino[incr  new  o[x>ds  to  Palestine, 

Another  innovation   which   the    Canaanite 
religion   experienced    in   course   of   time   has 

^  Fitit  nprv,  p.  SO.  *   Jldf  nipra,  jv  T9- 


94  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

already  been  mentioned — tlie  sacrificial  system 
came  to  be  very  largely  developed.  The  gifts 
of  the  Deity  and  the  fertile  country  were  far 
richer  than  they  used  to  be  in  the  desert,  and  a 
lean  year  would  be  doubtless  felt  by  the  farmers, 
who  had  grown  accustomed  to  abundance  and 
plenty.  Therefore  it  was  necessary  to  be  on 
good  terms  with  the  givers  of  corn  and  of  \\dne 
and  of  oil.  Thus  the  sacrifices  were  increased 
quite  naturally,  and  at  the  same  time  the  con- 
ception of  sacrifice  was  changed ;  it  was  no 
longer  a  sacramental  communion,  it  came  to  be 
a  gift.  The  gods  were  to  enjoy  the  first-fruits, 
the  best  of  all  the  rich  blessing,  the  fruits  of 
the  field  and  the  cattle  ;  it  all  belonged  to  them. 
With  conceptions  such  as  these  many  rites 
and  ceremonies  will  have  come  into  use,  on 
the  due  performance  of  which  depended  the 
enjoyment  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth.  If  we 
bear  in  mind  these  ideas,  we  shall  also  be  able 
to  account  for  the  sacrifice  of  children,  especi- 
ally if  it  were  the  first-born  that  were  offered 
up.     INIoreover,  as  we  already  notice,  it  is  not 


THE   PEASANT   RELIGION  95 

possible  to  explain  everything  in  the  rites  and 
ceremonies  of  a  rehgion  from  one  centre  or 
to  derive  it  from  one  fundamental  idea,  for  a 
great  deal  continues  to  subsist  from  earlier 
stages  of  development  which  have  been  more 
or  less  completely  left  behind. 

The  Canaanite  peasant  religion  was  closely 
related  to  the  Phoenician  religion.  Both  pre- 
sent exactly  the  same  features.  There,  too, 
the  old  faith,  with  its  worship  of  the  dead  and 
of  spirits,  with  its  sacred  trees  and  fountains, 
with  its  "living  stones,"  with  its  Massebahs 
and  Asherahs,  continued  to  exist  in  all  its 
vigour  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  polytheism  had 
entered  into  the  country  with  its  whole  train 
of  gods.  It  is  especially  noteworthy  that  many 
deities  of  the  name  of  Astarte  are  to  be  found 
here,  just  as  amongst  the  Canaanites,  as  many, 
in  ftict,  as  there  are  places  where  an  Astarte, 
i.e.  a  local  Ba'alat,  was  worshipped.  Here  too, 
then,  we  have  the  same  process.  The  original 
local  deity  acquires  the  name  of  a  foreign  god, 
and  is  then  identified  with  this  god.     Lastly, 


96   RELIGION   OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

the  Phoenician  rehgion  Hkewise  shows  us  in 
later  times  a  fully-developed  sacrificial  system 
— we  may  mention  the  great  sacrificial  tarif  at 
Marseilles  as  a  proof  of  this.  The  two  rehgions 
therefore  occupy  the  same  stage  of  develop- 
ment in  their  broad  outlines,  and,  indeed,  this 
is  but  what  we  should  be  led  to  expect,  when 
we  consider  the  close  relationship  and  the 
proximity  of  the  two  peoples — the  Canaanites 
of  the  interior  and  those  of  the  sea  coast,  the 
Phoenicians.  But  the  fact  is  worth  record- 
ing, because  the  Phoenician  monuments,  which 
have  been  preserved  in  great  numbers,  clearly 
prove  the  Babylonian  influence  to  have  been 
very  gi-eat,  and  we  are  bound  to  conclude, 
therefore,  that  Babylon  powerfully  affected  the 
inhabitants  of  Palestine  from  very  early  times.^ 
Such  in  its  main  features  is  the  picture  of 
the  religion  to  which  the  Israelites  had  to 
accommodate  themselves  after  their  entrance 
into  the  fertile  country  of  Canaan.     It  is  not 

*  As   to    the    Pha-nician    religion,  op.  R.  Pietschmann, 
History  of  the  Phocnkians,  1889,  152-237. 


THE   PEASANT   RELIGION  97 

our  object  here  to  relate  the  history  of  the 
conquest  of  the  country  by  the  IsraeHtes. 
It  will  be  sufficient  if  we  remind  ourselves 
that  it  was  only  after  a  long  period  that  the 
Israelites  were  able  to  look  upon  themselves  as 
the  conquerors  of  the  Canaanites  and  the  lords 
of  the  country  (towards  the  end  of  the  period 
of  the  Judges,  just  before  the  foundation 
of  the  kingdom  of  Israel),  nor  was  the  con- 
quest uniformly  brought  about  by  the  power 
of  the  sword ;  in  many  cases  it  was  eifected 
by  the  conclusion  of  treaties  and  by  amicable 
understanding.  The  original  inhabitants  of 
the  country  were  by  no  means  so  completely 
rooted  out  as  the  later  historians  of  Israel 
were  inclined  to  imagine,  but  gradually 
coalesced  with  the  Israelites.  The  occupation 
of  the  country  was  facilitated  by  the  political 
chaos  which  prevailed  in  it ;  nominally  it  still 
stood  in  all  probability  under  the  dominion 
of  Egypt,  but  the  Egyptian  Pharaoh  either 
did  not  possess  the  power,  or,  if  he  did,  he  did 

not  use  it,  in  order  to  make  his  possession  real. 

7 


98  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

The  land  was  cut  up  into  a  number  of  little 
principalities,  one  or  other  of  wliich,  no  doubt, 
exercised  a  kind  of  hegemony  over  its  nearest 
neighbours  (thus  the  king  of  Ta'anak  appears, 
according  to  a  document  discovered  by  Sellin, 
to  have  been  tributary  to  Megiddo) ;  at  any 
rate,  everything  was  in  a  state  of  flux,  there 
was  no  feeling  of  unity  amongst  the  individual 
kings ;  on  the  contrary,  discord  and  rivalry 
everywhere  prevailed. 

The  contest  with  the  Canaanite  religion 
naturally  played  an  important  part  in  the 
struggle  for  the  possession  of  the  country. 
The  religion  of  Canaan  was  not  rooted  out 
any  more  than  the  people,  but  was  overcome 
by  being  taken  over  into  the  conqueror's  re- 
ligion. It  would,  in  fact,  have  been  even  easier 
to  assume  an  attitude  of  absolute  and  un- 
compromising hostility  towards  the  people 
than  towards  the  religion ;  for  even  suppos- 
ing the  inhabitants  had  all  disappeared,  the 
land  remained,  and  the  deities  who  dispensed 
the  gifts  of  the  land  were  indissolubly  con- 


THE  PEASANT  RELIGION  99 

nected  with  it.  It  is  impossible  to  trace  the 
single  stages  of  this  process  of  the  fusion  of 
the  two  religions  with  accuracy.  The  import- 
ant thing  is  the  result  itself,  and  that  shows 
us  how  very  much  of  the  religion  of  Canaan 
was  taken  over  into  the  religion  of  Israel,  and 
what  important  changes  and  alterations  the 
religion  of  Jahwe  had  to  undergo.  The  two 
religions  were  probably  fused  together,  as  far 
as  all  their  most  important  features  were  con- 
cerned, at  about  the  same  time  as  the  parallel 
process  of  the  intermingling  of  the  two  peoples 
came  to  an  end.  The  rehgion  of  later  cen- 
turies is,  however,  better  known  than  that 
of  the  period  of  the  early  kings,  as  our 
authorities  are  more  numerous  for  the  eighth 
century ;  and,  most  important  of  all,  the 
prophets  enable  us  to  become  acquainted  with 
the  religion  of  the  people.  The  result  can  be 
briefly  summarized  as  follows : — The  nomad 
religion  became  a  peasant  religion,  and  Jahwe, 
the  God  of  Israel,  the  Lord  of  Palestine. 
The  most  striking  feature  of  the  religious 


100  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

life  in  Palestine  is  the  position  which  the 
cultus,  the  sacrificial  system,  acquires  all 
at  once.  In  the  nomad  religion  sacrifice 
occupied  an  entirely  subordinate  position ;  in 
Palestine  it  came  to  be  more  important  than 
everything  else,  and  represents  the  climax  of 
the  religious  life.  The  Israelite  proved  his 
adhesion  to  the  religion  of  Jahwe  by  the  offer- 
ing up  of  sacrifices  and  participation  in  the 
festivals  which  recurred  at  regular  intervals. 
Sacred  places  are  scattered  throughout  the 
whole  country ;  there  sacrifices  are  brought  to 
Jahwe  and  festivals  are  celebrated ;  to  the 
more  celebrated  sanctuaries  pilgrims  came  from 
afar,  and  there  is  an  hereditary  priesthood  re- 
sponsible for  the  due  fulfilment  of  the  daily 
service  and  charged  with  the  guardiansliip  of 
the  sacred  tabernacle,  containing  a  symbol 
or  picture  of  the  Deity.  The  extent  of  the 
change  is  best  realised  if  we  recall  the  oldest 
summary  of  the  duties  of  an  Israelite,  which  is 
contained  in  Exodus  xxxiv.  14-26,  and  which 
reflects  the  ideas  that  prevailed  at  the  time  of 


THE  PEASANT   RELIGION  101 

the  double  monarchy.  Of  these  duties  there 
is  not  a  single  one  that  does  not  refer  to  the 
cultus.  It  is  there  ordained  that  all  the  males 
in  Israel  shall  appear  three  times  in  the  year 
before  Jahwe — that  is  to  say,  at  the  Massot 
Festival,  at  the  Feast  of  Weeks  or  Harvest 
Festival,  and  at  the  Vintage  or  Feast  of  Taber- 
nacles. Furthermore,  it  is  laid  down  that  no 
one  is  to  appear  empty-handed  in  the  holy 
place.  The  best  of  the  first-fruits  of  the  land 
is  to  be  brought  thither.  It  is  also  laid  down 
what  is  to  be  done  with  the  blood  and  the  fat 
of  the  sacrifices  and  how  kids  are  to  be  seethed. 
Finally,  the  first-born  are  also  declared  to  be 
Jahwe's  property  ;  the  making  of  metal  pictures 
of  the  Deity  is  forbidden  as  well  as  the  worship 
of  foreign  gods.  It  is  important  to  remember 
in  this  connection  that  the  three  chief  festi- 
vals are  distinctly  agricultural  festivals.  The 
Massot  festival  is  that  of  the  first-fruits  of  the 
harvest — that  is,  the  commencement  of  the 
harvest  by  means  of  a  solemn  service,  and  the 
Feast  of  Weeks,  which  was  celebrated  fifty 


102  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

days  later,  evidently  forms  the  counterpart 
to  it  as  the  conclusion  of  the  corn  harvest ;  and 
so,  too,  the  connection  of  the  Feast  of  Taber- 
nacles as  the  Feast  of  the  Vintage  with  the 
cultivation  of  the  vine  in  the  land  of  Canaan 
is  unmistakable.  In  order  to  realise  the  in- 
fluence of  the  settlement  in  Palestine  on  the 
Israelite  religion,  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to 
remind  ourselves  that  the  conception  of  sacri- 
fice had  completely  changed.  The  old  idea  of 
a  sacramental  communion  between  the  sacri- 
ficer  and  the  Deity  has  been  thrust  into  the 
background,  and  has  had  to  give  way  to  the 
new  one,  which  sees  in  the  sacrifice  a  gift 
brought  to  the  Deity,  without  which  one  has 
as  little  right  to  appear  before  the  Deity  as 
one  would  before  any  human  potentate. 

The  Israelite  and  the  Canaanite  religions 
are  therefore  scarcely  to  be  distinguished  in 
the  cultus.  We  can  trace  no  difference  in 
the  rites  and  ceremonies.  The  Israelites  wor- 
shipped in  places  which  were  already  accounted 
sacred  by  the  Canaanites,  and  the  ceremonies, 


THE   PEASANT   RELIGION  103 

which  were  everywhere  connected  in  the 
closest  possible  manner  with  the  holy  places, 
were  unchanged,  even  though  the  worshippers 
were  no  longer  the  same.  Thus  many  things 
which  had  belonged  to  the  sacred  rites  of  the 
Canaanite  places  of  worship  were  taken  over 
in  the  Israelite  religion.  Amongst  these  some 
belonged  to  the  common  Semitic  stock,  and 
had  already  been  known  to  the  Israelites  in 
the  nomad  days  —  such  were  the  Massebahs 
and  the  Asherahs,  pillars  and  poles  ;  but  others 
had  made  their  way  into  the  Canaanite  religion 
from  foreign  sources — such  were  the  Kedesh- 
ahs  and  Hierodouloi.  This  transference  of 
the  sacred  places  and  ceremonies  of  the  old 
religion  to  the  new  one  which  is  established 
in  its  territory  is  no  isolated  phenomenon,  it 
is  constantly  repeated.  Christianity  itself  has 
taken  over  very  much  of  the  Greco-Roman 
religion,  changing  the  temples  into  churches, 
or,  at  least,  erecting  its  own  sanctuaries  on  the 
old  consecrated  ground ;  and,  to  this  day, 
many  ceremonies  in  Roman  Catholic  countries 


104  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

are  merely  Greco-Roman  rites  with  a  thin 
Christian  veneer.  And  in  the  case  of  the 
Iraehtes  it  is  exceptionally  easy  to  understand 
how  the  Canaanite  culture  came  to  be  taken 
over.  They  learned  agriculture  from  the 
inhabitants  of  the  country,  and  naturally,  at 
the  same  time,  also  the  cultus  which  was  so 
intimately  connected  with  it.  The  belief  in 
local  Ba'als,  the  lords  of  the  place,  who  were 
the  givers  of  all  good  things,  could  not  be 
conceived  to  be  in  opposition  to  their  own 
religion ;  the  belief  in  such  deities  had,  in- 
deed, been  peculiar  to  the  nomads  from  very 
ancient  times,  and  was  quite  compatible  with 
belief  in  Jahwe,  the  national  God.  Nothing, 
too,  was  more  natural  than  that  the  inhabitants 
of  the  country  should  teach  them  how  to 
show  their  reverence  to  the  Ba'als  of  the  land, 
for  it  was  they  who  would  know  best  of  all 
what  the  local  deities  demanded.^     This  pro- 

^  Cp.  the  parallel  case  in  later  times,  when  the  peoj)le 
from  Babylon,  Cuthah,  Ava,  Hamath,  Sepharvaim  were 
settled  in  the  cities  of  Samaria  (2  Kings  xvii.  24-33). 


THE   PEASANT   RELIGION  105 

cess  of  the  gradual  infiltration  of  the  rites  and 
ceremonies  of  the  Canaanite  cultus  was  con- 
siderably accelerated  when  the  Canaanites  and 
Israelites  began  to  coalesce,  and  no  longer 
lived  separately  side  by  side. 

But  with  all  this  similarity  and,  in  fact, 
identity  of  the  outer  forms  of  the  cultus,  we 
must  not  forget  the  important  distinction 
which  showed  itself  clearly  and  distinctly 
in  course  of  time.  The  cultus  which  the 
Israelites  practised  at  the  old  Canaanite 
sanctuaries  was  no  longer  intended  for  the 
gods  of  the  country,  but  for  Jahwe,  the  God 
of  the  people.  The  acceptation  of  the  foreign 
cultus  by  no  means  indicates  the  weakness,  but, 
in  fact,  proves  the  strength  of  the  Israelite 
religion.  Jahwe  triumphed  over  the  local 
deities,  the  Ba'als.  For  many  years  to  come, 
however,  the  belief  in  the  Ba'als  of  the  various 
places  persisted  in  unabated  force,  so  that  the 
people  to  a  certain  extent  divided  Jahwe  Him- 
self, distinguishing  the  Jahwe  of  one  sanctuary 
from   the   Jahwe   of    another    and    assigning 


106  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

special  functions  to  each.  Thus  Absalom, 
when  he  was  in  exile,  made  his  vow  to  the 
Jahwe  that  was  worshipped  at  Hebron.^  So 
Jahwe  in  one  place  is  called  "Jahwe  is  my 
banner  "  ^ ;  in  another,  "  Jahwe  is  peace  "  ^ ;  and 
in  yet  another,  "  the  God  that  seeth  "*;  and  thus 
Bethel,  Gilgal,  Dan,  Beer-sheba  had  become 
celebrated  places  of  pilgrimage.^  A  similar 
process  was  repeated,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
in  the  case  of  Astarte  in  the  Canaanite  religion  ; 
she,  too,  had  to  furnish  a  proper  name  for 
different  local  deities.^  But  Jahwe's  person- 
ahty  was  in  nowise  diminished  in  consequence. 
On  the  contrary,  the  sphere  of  His  activity  was 
only  mcreased.  For  the  only  reason  why  He 
was  able  to  take  the  place  of  the  gods  of 
Palestine  was  because  He  had  become  the 
Lord  of  the  land.  This  proves  the  superiority 
of  the  Israelite  rehgion  over  the  Canaanite,  a 
superiority  which  is  founded  in  the  peculiar 

1  2  Sam.  XV.  8,  ^  Ex.  xvii.  15. 

'  Judges  vi.  24.  *  Gen.  xvi.  13. 

*  Am.  iv.  4,  V.  5,  viii.  14;  Hos.  iv.  15. 
8  Fide  supra,  p.  79- 


THE   PEASANT  RELIGION  107 

nature  which  distinguishes  Jahwe  from  the 
gods  of  Canaan.  It  is  ultimately  only  the 
belief  in  Jahwe  as  the  God  of  the  whole  people 
and  of  its  common  interests  which  kept  alive 
in  Israel  the  feeling  and  the  consciousness  of 
unity,  in  spite  of  the  separatist  tendencies 
which  the  conquest  and  the  peaceful  settle- 
ment of  Canaan  called  into  being.  The  people's 
common  goal,  the  acquisition  of  a  settled 
habitation,  was  accounted  to  be  Jahwe's  will, 
and  the  wars,  the  most  effective  means  of 
attaining  to  this  end,  were  Jahwe's  wars. 
These  wars  formed  the  climax  of  the  religious 
life,  even  before  the  sacrificial  feasts  attained 
to  this  position,  and  they  continued  to  be 
thus  considered  by  the  side  of  the  latter 
throughout  this  period. 

By  His  people's  occupation  of  the  land 
Jahwe  proved  Himself  to  be  Lord  of  Canaan. 
The  functions  which  in  earlier  times  were 
ascribed  to  the  local  deities  were  therefore 
transferred  to  Jahwe.  He  was  now  the  giver 
of  the  gifts  of  nature,  He  sent  the  rain,  and 


108  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

provided  His  worshippers  with  corn,  wine,  and 
oil,  Canaan  now  became  His  country.  His 
house  and  His  property^;  and  this  claim  to 
the  possession  of  Canaan  was  incorporated  in 
the  national  consciousness  to  such  an  extent, 
that  outside  of  Palestine  the  Israehtes  felt 
themselves  exiles  and  far  from  Jahwe,^  even 
though  the  recollection  still  subsisted,  and 
was  kept  alive  in  poetic  descriptions  of  the 
theophany,  that  Jahwe  of  old  had  His  seat  in 
the  south,  especially  on  IMount  Sinai. 

Jahwe's  inner  being  underwent  no  change, 
however,  in  consequence  of  the  extension  of 
His  sphere  of  influence.  Jahwe  remained  the 
leader  of  the  people  in  the  great  national  con- 
cerns and  their  guide  in  all  internal  matters, 
just  as  He  had  of  old  called  the  people  into 
being  and  had  kept  it  united  till  it  settled  in 
Canaan.  This  He  proved,  firstly,  by  the  con- 
stant succour  He  gave  the  people  in  all  the 
wars   which  it  had  to  wage   in  the   defence 

^  Hos.  ix.  3,  15  ;  1  Sam.  xxvi,  19. 
2  Hos.  ix.  3.     Cp.  Gen.  iv.  14. 


THE   PEASANT  RELIGION  109 

of  Canaan  against  its  neighbours  on  all 
sides,  against  Philistines,  Ammonites  and 
Arameans,  against  Moabites  and  Edomites. 
These  wars  were  holy  wars,  in  which  Jahwe 
reveals  Himself  and  Israel  performs  a  religious 
action ;  and  the  victories  gained  by  Israel  were 
celebrated  by  songs,  which  were  collected  in 
a  book  entitled,  The  Book  of  the  Wars  of 
Jalvwe}  No  less  important,  however,  were  the 
operations  of  Jahwe  in  the  internal  concerns 
of  the  people.  To  Him  is  ascribed  the  creation 
of  the  organization  of  the  State.  The  head  of 
this  organization,  the  monarch,  was  only  con- 
ceived to  be  in  opposition  to  Jahwe  in  later 
times,  when  kings  like  Manasseh  opened  the 
door  wide  to  foreign  cults.  In  old  times,  on  the 
contrary,  the  monarchy  was  looked  upon  as  one 
of  the  greatest  blessings,^  for  the  king  was  called 
the  consecrated^  and  the  anointed  of  Jahwe,*  and 
beside  the  king  there  stood  other  worshippers 
of  Jahwe  who    exercised   an  important  influ- 

^  Num.  xxi.  14.  2  1   Sam.  ix.  27,  x.  1. 

3  Gen.  xlix.  26.  ^  1  Sam.  xxiv.  7,  11. 


no  RELIGION    OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

ence  on  the  people  by  the  words  they  uttered. 
The  words  of  the  old  seers  and  prophets  echoed 
throughout  Israel,  as  in  the  case  of  Deborah,^ 
or  gave  the  people  their  first  king,  as  in  that 
of  Samuel.^  The  activity  of  the  priests  was 
of  a  more  constant  nature ;  in  Canaan,  too, 
they  remained  faithful  to  the  original  task 
which  Moses  had  given  tliem.  Besides  pro- 
viding for  the  due  performance  of  the  sacrifices, 
their  chief  office  was  for  some  time  to  come 
to  give  directions  (Thora)  in  the  name  of 
Jahwe,  in  whose  sanctuary  they  stood.  The 
nature  of  these  directions  and  the  spirit  which 
animated  them  ^vill  be  best  gathered  from  the 
regulation  of  the  social  circumstances,  the  rites 
and  ordinances  which  are  contained  in  the  so- 
called  Book  of  the  Covenant.^  Although  this 
law  presents  by  no  means  unique  features,  and 
similar  codes  are  known  to  have  existed  in 
the  East  at  a  very  much  earlier  date,*  yet  it 
contains  peculiar  features  of  its   own ;    these 

^  Judges  V.  7.  2  1  Sam.  ix. 

8  Ex.  xxi.  1-xxiii,  13.  *   Fide  supra,  p.  11. 


THE   PEASANT   RELIGION  111 

show  us  that  principles  of  law  common  to 
the  whole  of  the  East  were  humanely  applied 
in  Israel,  and  that  especially  in  the  infliction 
of  pains  and  penalties  the  cruel  features  of 
old  times,  even  of  the  code  of  Hammurabi, 
were  conspicuously  absent. 

The  superiority  of  the  religion  of  Israel  is 
therefore  not  merely  proved  by  its  ultimate 
triumph.  It  depends,  on  the  contrary,  on  its 
essential  character.  As  compared  with  the 
Canaanite  religion,  that  of  Israel  is  favour- 
ably distinguished  by  the  influence  which  it 
exercises  in  the  social  and  ethical  sphere  ;  and 
then  Jahwe  was  from  the  very  first  far  exalted 
above  the  deities  of  Canaan.  Even  when 
these  latter  came  to  possess  names  of  their 
own,  they  were  still  greatly  affected  by  the 
characteristics  of  a  genius  loci,  whereas  Jahwe 
is  the  God  of  the  whole  people.  And  further- 
more, while  these  local  deities  are  rather  of 
the  nature  of  impersonal  spiritual  forces, 
bound  to  natural  phenomena,  Jahwe  from 
the  very  first  appears  as  a  spiritual  personahty 


112  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

independent  of  nature  and  far  exalted  above 
human  powers.  Lastly,  while  the  gods  of 
the  Canaanites  show  no  concern  w^hatever 
with  the  moral  conduct  of  their  worshippers, 
the  Israelite  religion  has  an  ethical  tendency, 
and  Jahwe  possesses,  even  at  this  early  period, 
if  not  a  moral  character  yet  certainly  moral 
features.  His  ^vill  can  be  opposed  not  only 
in  the  sphere  of  the  cultus,  but  especially  in 
that  of  ethics.  This  must  not,  however,  be 
taken  to  imply  that  Jahwe  was  absolutely  the 
only  God,  or  that  He  was  all-powerful.  He 
was  the  only  God  that  Israel  had  to  worship 
in  the  land,  and,  besides  possessing  the  will  to 
further  His  people's  welfare.  He  possessed  the 
power  to  carry  out  this  will.  As  long  as  the 
belief  prevailed  in  the  existence  of  other  gods 
besides  Jahwe  whom  other  peoples  worshipped, 
and  the  Israelites  felt  themselves  to  be  distant 
from  Jahwe  when  once  beyond  the  limits  of 
Palestine,  it  was  impossible  to  ascribe  the 
existence  of  the  world  and  the  creation  of  the 
universe  to  the  activity  of  the  national  God. 


THE  PEASANT  RELIGION  113 

Reflections  as  to  the  origin  of  the  cosmos 
were  hmited  to  a  later  period  in  the  history  of 
the  rehgion  of  Israel ;  it  was  only  when  the 
prophets  had  recognised  the  greater  power  of 
Jahwe  that  Jahwe  could  become  the  creator 
of  the  whole  world.  This  belief  and  the 
passages  in  the  O.T.  which  thus  conceive  of 
Jahwe  do  not  belong  to  tlie  original  contents 
of  the  Israelite  peasant  religion,  but  were  only 
added  to  it  in  the  days  of  the  prophets. 

As  the  power  of  Jahwe  was  thus  by  no 
means  absolute,  a  great  deal  of  the  old  faith 
in  divine  '  numina '  continued  to  subsist  in  the 
Israelite  peasant  religion,  and  many  similar 
beliefs  were  taken  over  from  the  Canaanites. 
In  this  connection  we  may  mention  once  more 
the  building  sacrifice,^  the  sacrifices  to  the 
dead  and  the  inquiry  of  the  dead,^  as  well  as 
the  conception  of  Sheol,  the  subterranean 
realm  of  the  dead,  in  which  they  lead  a  kind 
of  phantom  life  which  stands  in  no  relation 
whatever  to  Jahwe ;  furthermore,  many  prac- 

*  Vide  supra,  p.  80.  2  Qp^  j  Sam.  xxviii. 

8 


114  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

tices  still  continued  in  daily  life  which  came 
in  later  times  either  to  be  absolutely  pro- 
hibited as  superstitious  or  to  be  rendered 
innocuous  through  interpretation,  but  which 
were  not  as  yet  conceived  to  be  in  contra- 
diction to  Jahwe,  the  God  of  the  people  and 
the  Lord  of  the  land.  Thus  it  is  demons 
to  whose  influence  diseases,  especially  leprosy, 
are  ascribed,  and  demonic  activity  is  pre- 
supposed in  the  mystery  of  birth  as  well  as 
in  sexual  intercourse  generally.  Hence  the 
uncleanness  which  was  supposed  to  attach 
to  women  after  childbirth,  and  also  the 
sacrifice  of  children,  especially  of  the  first- 
born, a  practice  which  was  not  only  current 
amongst  the  Canaanites,^  but  only  gradually 
became  obsolete  amongst  the  Israelites  them- 
selves. While  these  beliefs  are  all  common  to 
peasants  and  nomads,  the  following  customs, 
amongst  others,  are  closely  connected  with  the 
peasant  life : — The  products  of  newly-planted 
fruit  trees  and  vineyards  were  not  allowed  to 

^   Vide  supra,  p,  80. 


THE   PEASANT  RELIGION  115 

be  used  during  the  first  years ;  this  apphed, 
in  fact,  to  the  first-fruits  of  the  land  as  a 
whole/  These  belonged  to  the  spirits  of  the 
field.  So  too,  in  later  times,  the  outermost 
border  of  the  field  that  was  being  reaped 
was  left  for  them,  and  a  sheaf  of  corn  was 
there  forgotten.  The  later  law  sanctioned 
the  custom,  but  turned  the  offerings  due 
to  the  spirits  of  the  field  into  gifts  to  the 
poor.^ 

Just  as  Jahwe's  power  was  limited  in  extent, 
so,  too,  His  will  was  as  yet  not  fully  known, 
and  His  ordinances  were  not  clearly  laid 
down  for  all  the  varying  circumstances  of  life. 
Sin  was  the  opposite  of  what  was  customary 
in  Israel ;  it  was  what  one  ought  "  no-where 
and  never  to  do."  The  sinner  committed  "an 
unheard-of  folly."  ^  But  even  he  that  was  on 
his  guard  against  deeds  such  as  these  was  still 
liable  to  fall  under  the  wrath  of  Jahwe.  This 
alone   showed   that  any  deed  had  been  done 

^  Lev.  xix.  23-25.         2  Lev.  xix.  9;  Deut.  xxiv.  I9. 
^  Gen.  XX.  9,  xxxiv,  7 ;  2  Sam.  xiii.  1 2  seq. 


116  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

in  opposition  to  the  divine  will.^  This  un- 
certainty as  to  Jahwe's  secret  will,  and  the 
conciousness  that  His  displeasure  could  easily 
be  aroused,  even  unintentionally,  contributed 
largely,  however,  to  the  fear  of  God  becom- 
ing the  characteristic  of  the  true  Israelite,  a 
characteristic  which,  it  was  imagined,  one 
could  not  presuppose  in  the  case  of  a 
foreigner.^ 

It  is  the  stories  of  the  patriarchs  contained 
in  the  book  of  Genesis  which  best  enable  us 
to  judge  of  the  religious  feelings  which  pre- 
vailed among  the  Israelite  peasants  in  Palestine 
and  of  the  influence  which  religion  exercised 
upon  their  life  as  a  whole.  For  though  older 
elements  are  contained  in  these  stories,  the 
shape  in  which  they  are  presented  to  us  in  the 
O.T.,  both  in  the  Jahwistic  and  the  Elohistic 
versions,  dates  from  the  time  when  Israel  was 
settled  in  the  land  of  Palestine,  and  the  life 
which  they  reflect  is  not  that  of  a  few  legend- 
ary figures  who  are  said  to  have  sojourned  in 

^  Cp.  Ex.  iv.  24  seq.  -  Gen.  xx.  11,  xxii.  12. 


THE   PEASANT   RELIGION  117 

Palestine  as  strangers  before  the  existence  of 
the  people  of  Israel,  but  the  life  of  the  Israelite 
peasants,  while  some  features  in  the  picture 
may  be  already  due  to  the  influence  of  the 
teaching  of  the  prophets  ;  so  that  Jahwe  does 
not  appear  to  be  strictly  confined  within  the 
Umits  of  Palestine.  It  is,  on  the  whole,  that 
of  the  Israelitic  peasant  religion  as  it  existed 
before  the  prophets  of  the  eighth  century. 
And,  above  all,  the  patriarchs  appear  as  the 
examples  of  piety  and  righteousness  for  all 
true  Israelites. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  inquire  as  to  the 
separate  elements  which  compose  these  stories 
about  the  patriarchs  nor  how  they  gradually 
coalesced.  The  question  of  their  origin  and 
growth  does  not  here  concern  us.  It  is  a 
matter  of  indifference  to  us  whether  Egyptian 
elements  are  to  be  found  in  the  story  of 
Joseph  ^  or  elsewhere ;  what  we  are  here  con- 
cerned with  is  the  finished  form  which  the 
Jahwist  and   Elohist   present  us  in  the  O.T. 

^  Fide  supra,  p.  22. 


118  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

Nor  is  our  task  here  to  estimate  the  literary 
vakie  of  these  stories.  The  striking  features 
which  they  present  in  this  respect  have  rightly 
been  emphasised  of  late,  but  it  is  scarcely 
necessary  to  call  our  attention  to  them,  for 
everyone  who  reads  these  narratives  in  their 
original  form,  after  later  additions  have  been 
excised,  will  be  sure  to  feel  their  wonderful 
charm  and  the  many  delicacies  of  expression. 
We  may  take  as  an  instance  the  way  in  which 
the  sacrifice  of  Isaac  ^  becomes  one  of  the  most 
thrilling  of  stories  by  the  employment  of  the 
simplest  means  ;  or,  again,  we  may  remind  our- 
selves of  the  narrative  skill  exhibited  in  the 
excellent  description  of  the  varied  situations 
in  the  story  of  Joseph,  and  in  the  way  in 
which  the  single  events  are  grouped  under 
one  leading  thought^;  or  we  may  think 
of  the  joy  M'hich  the  teller  of  the  tale 
and  his  hearers  alike  experience  when  we 
are  told  how  Jacob  proves  a  match  for  all 
Laban's  wiles  and   the  Aramean  everywhere 

1  Gen.  xxii.  1-19.  ^  Gen.  xxxvii.  39-50. 


THE   PEASANT   RELIGION  119 

comes  off  the  worse  in  his   encounters   with 
the  Israelite.^ 

We  are  here  concerned  with  the  religious 
value  of  these  stories  in  the  form  which 
they  eventually  assumed  in  the  Jahwist  and 
Elohist  narrators.  In  general  terms  we  may 
say  that  the  religious  disposition  which  is  here 
described  is  one  of  joyful  confidence  and  lofty 
hope.  Jahwe  appears  as  the  mighty  protector 
of  His  people.  He  knows  how  to  rescue  His 
worshippers  in  critical  situations.^  Above  all. 
He  helps  the  Israelites  to  victory  in  contest 
with  the  foreigners  (cp.  Joseph  in  Egypt,  Jacob 
and  Laban  —  Jacob-Israel  and  Esau-Edom). 
Even  if  dark  days  came,  days  when  it  was 
difficult  to  understand  why  Jahwe  was  angry, 
they  took  comfort  in  the  thought  that  Jahwe 
could  never  refuse  His  protection  and  His 
help  entirely  and  for  ever.  This  faith  received 
its  most  beautiful  expression  in  the  story  of 
Joseph.^    Joseph  was   not  forgotten,  and  his 

1  Gen.  XXX.  29-xxxi.  54. 

2  Gen.  xii.  10-20,  xx.  1-17,  xxvi.  1-14.        »  Gen.  1.  19  seq. 


120  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

fortunes  in  the  end  bring  about  the  salvation  of 
the  whole  family  of  Jacob.  Full  of  confidence, 
the  people  go  forward  into  the  unknown  future. 
After  all,  Jahwe  is  never  really  opposed  to  the 
Israelites  :  the  great  day  of  Jahwe  is  bound  to 
come.  Then  there  will  be  a  striking  manifesta- 
tion of  His  help,  and  He  will  save  His  people, 
Israel.  The  thought  that  Israel  could  possibly 
perish  is  never  entertained.  Whoever  har- 
boured such  doubts  would  but  prove  his  want 
of  faith  in  Jahwe,  for  Jahwe  and  His  people, 
Israel,  belong  indissolubly  together.  In  spite  of 
the  prophets,  this  belief  persisted  in  the  people 
of  Israel  till  after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
and  the  hope  in  the  future  which  was  thereby 
fostered  more  than  counterbalanced  Jahwe's 
dark  and  mysterious  ways  in  the  present,  which 
were  often  hard  to  accept,  because  the  wrath 
of  Jahwe  was  incomprehensible. 

All  that  the  stories  in  Genesis  tell  us  of  the 
God-fearing  spirit  and  upright  conduct  in  the 
daily  affairs  of  life  is  of  no  less  importance. 
On  the  one  hand,  the  patriarchs  do  not  neglect 


THE   PEASANT  RELIGION  121 

the  duty  of  public  worship.  Their  dehght  was 
to  sacrifice  at  the  holy  places.  Indeed,  accord- 
ing to  these  stories  it  was  their  worship  which 
first  consecrated  the  places  at  which  the  people 
sacrificed.  And,  on  the  other,  the  patriarch's 
conduct  testified  to  their  fear  of  God.  Many 
a  fine  trait  in  their  character  points  to  this.  In 
order  to  ensure  peace,  Abraham  foregoes  his 
rights  in  favour  of  the  younger  Lot  ^  and  exer- 
cises lavish  hospitality  in  a  typical  manner.^ 
Abraham  and  Joseph  both  distinguish  them- 
selves by  resignation  to  God's  will.  The  latter 
resists  the  temptation  of  the  adulterous  woman, 
because  he  will  not  commit  so  grievous  a  wrong 
and  sin  against  God  ^ ;  he  forgives  his  brethren, 
and  requites  the  evil  they  have  done  him 
with  good.^  Besides  these  beautiful  features, 
much  that  is  evil  is  told  us  of  the  same  per- 
sons in  the  most  matter-of-fact  way,  without 
a  word  of  criticism  and  even  with  evident 
pleasure,  and  this  certainly  proves  the  ethical 

^  Gen.  xiii.  2  Gen.  xviii. 

'  Gen.  xxxix.  9-  *  Gen.  1.  15-31. 


122   RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

influence  exercised  by  religion  at  that  time  to 
have  been  very  superficial  and  far  from  serious. 
That  a  man  should  continue  to  gain  advantage 
for  himself  by  prevarication  and  lies,  by  craft 
and  deceit,  was  evidently  not  conceived  to  be 
incompatible  with  faith  in  Jahwe.  Jacob  is  a 
typical  example  of  this  :  not  only  does  he  over- 
reach Laban,  but  he  deceives  his  father  and 
tricks  his  brother  out  of  his  rights  without 
incurring  any  blame.  The  surrender  of  Sarah 
to  a  foreign  prince  ^  and  the  institution  of  the 
Kedeshahs  ^  prove  the  existence  of  lax  views  as 
to  the  sexual  relations.  The  development  of 
the  forces  that  made  for  righteousness  was 
hindered  by  the  cultus. 

These  few  examples  will  be  sufficient  to 
show  how  the  character  of  the  Israelite  peasant 
religion  is  reflected  in  the  stories  in  the  book 
of  Genesis.  It  is  distinguished  on  the  one 
hand  from  the  old  nomad  religion  principally 
by  the  incorporation  of  the  Canaanite  sacrificial 

1  Gen.  xii.  10-20. 

2  Gen.  xxxviii.  21  seq.     Cp.  Deut.  xxiii.  18. 


THE   PEASANT  RELIGION  123 

cultus,  and  by  the  extension  of  Jahwe's  sphere 
of  influence  to  the  possession  of  the  land  of 
Canaan ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  a 
clear  line  of  demarcation  between  the  religion 
of  Israel  at  this  stage  of  its  development  and 
the  Canaanite  peasant  religion.  Israel  possesses 
a  different  conception  of  God :  Jahwe  has 
nothing  in  common  with  the  local  deities. 
He  is  the  God  of  the  whole  people  and  the 
whole  country,  and  His  influence  extends 
likewise  to  the  development  of  justice  and 
morality  among  His  people. 


CHAPTER  III 

The  Religion  of  the  Prophets 

The  religion  of  the  prophets  did  not  arise,  as 
did  the  peasant  rehgion,  through  a  compromise 
or  syncretism  with  a  foreign  rehgion.  During 
the  period  of  the  activity  of  the  prophets  with 
whom  we  are  here  concerned — Amos,  Hosea, 
Isaiah,  Micah,  Zephaniah,  Jeremiah,  and 
then  Deutero-Isaiah — the  rehgions  of  Assyria, 
Babylon  and  Persia  did,  it  is  true,  begin  to 
loom  upon  the  horizon  of  the  Israelites.  The 
impulse  to  the  new  understanding  of  Jahwe 
did  not,  however,  come  from  without,  for  the 
first  of  these  prophets,  who  already  belong 
entirely  to  the  new  order,  had  certainly 
seen  but  httle  of  Assyria  and  its  religion,  and 
the  latter,  who  had  probably  come  into  direct 

124 


THE   REIJGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS  125 

contact  with  the  great  empires  of  the  East, 
and  may  have  become  better  acquainted  with 
their  rehgions,  do  not  reveal  the  shghtest 
trace  of  foreign  influence  that  can  be  posi- 
tively identified. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  take  serious  notice 
of  the  hypothesis,  that  the  prophets  of  the 
eighth  century  were  the  diplomatic  emissaries 
of  the  Assyrian  power  in  Palestine.  There 
is  not  much  of  the  diplomatist  about  any  of 
these  men :  it  is  not  easy  to  understand  how 
a  shepherd  of  Tekoa,  Amos,  could  have  been 
fitted  for  a  diplomatic  mission  to  the  northern 
kingdom  in  the  interest  of  Assyria.  Nor  is 
the  mere  fact  that  the  Assyrian  empire  now 
appears  with  new  power  on  the  horizon  of  the 
world's  history,  and  extends  itself  irresistibly 
westwards,  an  adequate  explanation  for  the 
appearance  of  such  prophetic  men.  There 
were  many  others  at  that  time  in  Palestine, 
and  especially  in  the  royal  castle  at  Jerusalem, 
who  observed  the  advance  of  the  Assyrian 
power,  but  yet  they  did  not  become  prophets, 


126  RELIGION  OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

nor  did  they  adhere  to  the  teaching  of  the 
prophets.  It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  the 
new  imperial  power  loomed  large  in  the 
prophets'  outlook,  but  it  was  the  new  teaching 
of  the  prophets  that  came  first  and  that  led 
men  to  understand  the  Assyrians  and  the 
work  they  were  destined  to  accomplish. 

The  religion  of  the  prophets  is  rather  to  be 
considered  as  an  inner  evolution  of  the  Israelite 
religion  itself.  The  different  elements  in  this 
religion  are  realised  in  their  opposition  to  each 
other ;  and  some  are  thrust  into  the  back- 
ground, others  are  allowed  to  develop  freely. 
The  prophets  take  up  a  position  of  uncom- 
promising hostility  to  all  that  is  heathen  in 
the  Israelite  religion  of  their  days,  especially 
to  the  ritual  borrowed  from  the  Canaanites, 
but  they  single  out  the  ethical  tendency;  it 
appeals  to  them.  They  clear  away  misunder- 
standings and  further  its  development.  We 
shall  see  later  how  it  was  that  the  prophets 
came  to  take  up  this  standpoint. 

The   prophets   of  the  eighth  century  were 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS    127 

not  absolutely  the  first.  But,  however  im- 
portant Elijah  and  Elisha  may  have  been,  and 
they  must  have  been  important  personages,  if 
we  judge  by  the  fact  that  a  whole  mass  of 
stories  has  gathered  itself  round  their  names, 
we  cannot  gain  as  clear  a  knowledge  of  their 
teaching  as  in  the  case  of  their  successors, 
whose  words  have  come  down  to  us  in 
writings  of  their  own.  All  that  we  can 
recognise  with  certainty  is  that  they  were 
the  predecessors  of  the  later  prophets  in  so 
far  as  they  stirred  up  a  reaction  against 
heathenism,  and  that  they  did  so  starting 
from  similar  principles.  But,  as  far  as  we 
can  see,  their  opposition  was  only  directed 
against  the  new  heathen  current  that  was 
endeavouring  to  force  its  way  in  from  without, 
against  the  worship  of  the  Tyrian  Baal  and 
Astarte,  not  against  the  heathen  leaven  which 
had  already  been  admitted  into  the  Israelite 
religion.  If  we  wish  to  study  the  peculiar 
nature  of  the  prophets'  religion,  we  may 
therefore  count  Amos  of  Tekoa  as  the  first 


128  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

in  the  succession  of  prophets,  and  the  second 
Isaiah  the  last  of  these  great  men  of  the 
O.T.;  for  those  that  came  later,  even  though 
they  were  called  prophets,  are  but  Epigoni, 
and  the  religion  of  the  prophets  was  already 
mingled  with  foreign  elements.  We  may 
consider  this  tendency  to  have  originated  in 
Ezechiel ;  though  he  lived  before  the  second 
Isaiah,  he  is  not  to  be  reckoned  among  the 
real  prophets. 

Looking  at  the  prophets'  religion  as  a  whole, 
the  most  striking  characteristic  is  undoubtedly 
monotheism,  the  belief  that  Jahwe,  the  God 
of  Israel,  is  the  one  and  only  God.  Before 
the  prophets  began  to  teach,  Jahwe  was 
considered  in  the  religion  of  Israel  as  Israel's 
God  alone,  miglitier,  it  is  true,  than  the  gods 
of  the  neighbouring  tribes  whom  He  had  van- 
quished in  battle,  mightier  than  the  Baals  of 
the  Canaanites,  mightier  than  INlilcom,  god 
of  the  Ammonites,  and  Chemosh,  god  of  the 
Moabites,  and  the  people's  confidence  was 
firmly  rooted  that  His  power  would  continue 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS   129 

undiminished  in  all  future  time  to  protect  His 
people,  and  uphold  it  against  all  foreign  gods 
and  their  worshippers.  But,  since  the  pro- 
phets appeared  and  began  to  teach,  the 
confession  of  the  Israelite  faith  has  ever  been, 
"  Jahwe,  our  God,  is  one  God,"^  and  this  con- 
fession of  monotheism  can  be  traced  as  a 
red  thread  from  the  prophets  downwards 
throughout  the  religion  of  the  Israelites. 
The  belief  in  one  God  was  the  pride  of  Israel 
in  the  later  centuries.  Hence  their  conscious- 
ness of  superiority  over  the  heathen  religions 
with  their  polytheism ;  nor  was  monotheism 
the  least  powerful  influence,  which  attracted 
so  many  heathen  in  the  Greco-Roman  world, 
with  its  worship  of  many  gods,  and  induced 
them  to  become  proselytes  and  accept  the 
Jewish  religion. 

The  question  has  been  raised  whether  we 
have  any  right  to  speak  of  monotheism  in 
connection  with  the  earliest  of  our  series  of 
prophets,  Amos,  or  whether  it  is  not  rather 

^  Deut.  vi.  4. 


^f 


130  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

in  the  last  in  Jeremiah  and  Deutero- Isaiah 
that  this  doctrine  first  appears.  Both  views 
are  right ;  they  merely  emphasize  different  sides 
of  the  question.  The  first  lays  greater  stress  on 
the  power  of  this  belief  in  the  one  God,  the 
other  on  the  fully  conscious  expression  which 
this  belief  received.  In  religion,  however,  it 
is  not  formulae  that  are  vital,  but  the  living 
power,  and  this  can  really  be  present  before 
its  significance  has  been  expressed  in  words. 
When  the  latent  power  is  manifested,  then  the 
corresponding  expression  is  found  of  its  own 
accord  in  due  course.  Such  was  the  case  with 
monotheism.  It  was  a  gradual  growth  ;  only 
by  slow  degrees  did  the  prophets  realize  how 
their  conception  of  Jahwe  had  distinctly  out- 
stripped the  form  of  monolatry  and  included 
the  acknowledgment  of  only  one  God.  But 
this  monotheism  existed  as  early  as  Amos, 
because  in  all  practical  cases  Jahwe  alone 
exists  for  him,  and  beside  Him  the  gods  of 
the  heathen  are  utter  nothingness.  The  power 
latent  in  the  prophets'  belief  from  the  very 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS   131 

first  could  not  be  greater  even  if  the  earliest 
amongst  them  had  expressly  called  Jahwe  the 
one  God.  According  to  Amos,  Hosea,  Isaiah, 
and  Micah,  Jahwe  has  not  only  power  over 
Israel  and  its  armies,  but  the  Assyrians  and 
Egyptians  are  at  His  disposal  to  carry  out  His 
plans  ;  He  need  but  whistle  for  them  and  they 
will  hasten  to  Him  as  though  they  were  flies 
or  bees  ^ ;  He  can  bid  the  fire  approach "-  and 
can  also  send  it  into  the  principal  cities  of 
the  neighbouring  dominions.^  His  sway  is 
unlimited  ;  neither  in  heaven  above  nor  in  the 
earth  beneath,  nor  in  the  world  that  is  under 
the  earth,  is  it  possible  to  escape  His  arm  * ; 
His  glory  fills  the  whole  earth,^  and  His 
power  is  of  a  higher  kind  than  that  of  the 
nations,  even  if  they  are  not  conceived  as 
described  by  their  gods.  Jahwe  represents 
the  spiritual  principle,  compared  with  which 
all  other  powers  are  but  flesh  ;  He,  who  is 
God,  needs  but  "  stretch  out  His  hand  "  and 

1  Isaiah  vii.  18  scq.  2  Amos  vji.  4. 

3  Amos  i.  4,  14,  ii.  2.       *  Amos  ix.  2-4.       ^  isa.  vi.  3. 


132   RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

the  carnal  cavalry  stumbles  and  falls/  One 
might  transcribe  every  page  of  the  prophets  of 
the  eighth  century  ;  they  contain  a  unanimous 
testimony  to  the  sole,  unlimited,  and  irresist- 
ible power  of  Jahwe,  and  afford  at  the  same 
time  the  proof  that  in  its  essence  monotheism 
existed  from  the  very  first  in  the  earliest 
prophets.  Compared  with  this  it  is  a  fact  of  no 
importance  that,  as  far  as  we  know,  it  is  only 
when  we  come  to  the  book  of  Deuteronomy  that 
the  monotheistic  faith  finds  its  formula,  and  that 
the  detailed  descriptions  of  the  transcendent, 
unique,  and  incomparable  nature  of  Jahwe  are 
not  to  be  found  before  the  time  of  Deutero- 
Isaiah. 

The  word  monotheism  is  not,  however,  in 
itself  sufficient  to  characterize  the  religion  of 
the  prophets ;  for  if  it  depends  on  the  word 
alone,  the  prophetic  religion  of  Israel  could 
not  maintain  its  claim  to  have  been  the  first 
to  conceive  this  idea  and  to  have  represented 
monotheism  in  the  world. 

^  Isa.  xxxi.  3. 


THE   REIJGION   OF  TPIE    PROPHETS   133 

A  short  time  ago  it  used  to  be  confidently 
asserted  that  the  knowledge  of  the  unity  of  God 
had  been  reached  by  a  few  choice  minds  in 
Assyria  and  Babylonia  long  before  the  time  of 
the  prophets  of  Israel.  By  these  enlightened 
men  the  various  gods  of  the  pantheon,  with 
their  difficult  names,  were,  it  was  maintained, 
merely  conceived  as  the  emanations  of  the 
one  deity.  This  hypothesis,  it  is  true,  has  had 
to  be  abandoned.  The  former  confident  asser- 
tion has  given  way  to  the  timid  suggestions 
that  there  may  possibly  be  secret  monotheistic 
tendencies  within  the  Babylonian  religion, 
which  might  be  discovered  in  the  occult  Baby- 
lonian star-worship,  or  that  there  was  a 
"highest  God,"  supreme  above  all  gods,  or 
that  the  Babylonian  polytheism  was  "  mon- 
archical " ;  but  all  this  is  an  entirely  different 
thing  to  a  real  belief  in  one  God.  We  have 
nothing  to  warrant  the  existence  of  a  genuine 
monotheistic  tendency  in  the  East,  outside  of 
Israel,  before  the  sixth  century  e.g.,  and  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  belief  in  one  God 


134   RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

had  been   firmly  established   in  Israel  a  long 
time  before  that.^ 

There  is  one  exception,  however — the  Egyp- 
tian monotheism.  It  certainly  existed,  though 
its  life  was  but  of  short  duration.  It  is  well 
known  that  about  the  year  1400  B.C.  the 
Pharaoh  Amenhotep  (Amenophis)  IV. — our 
knowledge  concerning  him  has  recently  been 
augmented  by  the  discoveries  at  El  Amarna,^ — 
inaugurated  a  religious  reformation.  In  place 
of  all  the  gods  of  the  Egyptian  pantheon,  he 
determined  that  the  sun-god  alone  should  be 
worshipped  as  the  sole  ruler  of  heaven  and 
earth ;  instead  of  the  many  phantom  forms 
and  empty  names  he  wanted  to  set  the  one 
true  God,  the  source  of  all  life  and  growth 
in  things  created.  The  reformer-king  was 
thoroughly  in  earnest,  the  pictures  and  names 
of  the  gods  that  stood  in  no  relation  to  the 
sun  were  destroyed   and   abolished,  and  only 

^  Cp.  A.  Jeremias,  Monotheistische  Siromungen  innerhalh  der 
bahylomsdien  Religio?!,  1904. 
2  Fide  supra,  p.  73. 


THE   RELIGION    OF  THE   PIIOPHETS    135 

that  which  had  something  to  do  with  the  sun 
found  favour  in  his  sight.  That  is  why  he 
changed  even  his  own  name,  which  was  derived 
from  that  of  the  hated  and  proscribed  god 
Amon,and  called  himself  Chuen-aten  (reflection 
of  the  sun's  orb),  in  accordance  with  the  new 
monotheistic  belief.  The  Egyptian  religious 
reformation  was  effected  by  means  of  force ; 
but  after  the  death  of  the  reformer,  Chuen-aten, 
his  work  became  extinct  and  the  old  polytheism 
reasserted  itself  once  more. 

The  rapid  decay  of  the  Egyptian  reforma- 
tion compared  with  the  victorious  persistence 
of  the  prophetic  religion  proves  clearly  that 
we  must  distinguish  between  different  kinds 
of  monotheism.  Far  more  depends  upon  the 
inner  power  of  the  faith  in  God  than  on  the 
mere  word  one  God.  What,  then,  is  it  that 
distinguishes  one  monotheism  from  another  ? 
That  we  shall  see  if  we  inquire  into  the  origin 
of  each  faith. 

Chuen-aten's  monotheism  arose  in  Egypt 
from  the  need  that  was  felt  to  assimilate  all 


136  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

secondary  deities.  Its  source  was  purely 
intellectual.  Men  observed  and  compared  the 
powers  of  nature.  They  reflected  upon  the 
results  of  their  observation,  and  finally  taught 
that  all  these  powers  were  but  manifestations 
of  one  primary  cause,  the  symbol  of  which  was 
the  sun.  This  belief  in  one  God,  or  it  would 
be  better  to  express  the  matter  abstractedly,  in 
one  deity,  is  therefore  essentially  the  result  of 
abstraction,  of  pantheistic  speculation :  it  may 
be  termed  a  philosophical  monotheism.  Bear- 
ing this,  its  origin,  in  mind,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
account  for  the  ephemeral  success  of  Egyptian 
monotheism.  It  possessed  no  inner  power  of 
its  own,  and  that  is  why  he  who  did  not  feel 
the  need  for  such  speculation,  and  was  un- 
affected by  the  logical  sequence  of  ideas,  refused 
to  accept  the  conclusion.  The  great  mass 
of  the  people  fell  back  into  polytheism. 

The  origin  of  the  prophets'  belief  in  one 
God,  and  therefore,  too,  of  their  conception  of 
the  being  of  this  God,  is  entirely  different. 

The  source  of  the  prophetic  monotheism  was 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS    137 

not  the  observation  of  nature  and  its  powers, 
nor  reflection  upon  the  phenomena  of  this 
world  of  nature.  It  was  only  gradually  that 
the  prophets  came  to  teach  that  the  whole  of 
nature  was  embraced  in  God's  sphere  of  action. 
It  was,  in  fact,  only  the  latest,  Deutero-Isaiah, 
who  devoted  greater  attention  to  this  ob- 
servation of  nature.  Incidentally  the  earlier 
prophets  mention  that  Jahwe  bestows  rain  and 
fruitful  seasons,  and  that  from  Him  come 
drought  and  famine  ^ ;  but  that  does  not  in 
reality  take  us  beyond  the  stage  of  the  peasant 
religion.  It  is  quite  possible,  too,  that  soon 
after  the  appearance  of  the  first  prophets,  when 
Assyrio-Babylonian  creation  stories  became 
current,  Jahwe  was  called  Creator  of  the  World 
in  Israel.^  Previous  to  the  exile,  however,  this 
representation  does  not  appreciably  influence 
religion.  Jahwe's  solitary  and  absolute  power 
had  already  been  recognised  and  established 
from  another  point  of  view  before  reference 
was  made  to  nature  and  its  wonders  in  order 
^  Amos  iv.  7  seq.,  vii.  4 ;  Hos.  ii.  11.      ^  Gen.  ii.  4  seq. 


138  RELIGION    OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

to  illustrate  His  omnipotence,  and  before  new 
proofs  were  found  in  the  creation  and  pre- 
servation of  the  world  for  the  greatness  and 
sublimity  of  the  one  God.  The  mere  fact 
that  the  passages  relating  to  the  creation  of 
the  world  and  the  magnificence  of  nature 
are  wanting  at  the  beginning  of  the  prophetic 
era,  appear  at  first  sporadically,  and  only  in 
Deutero- Isaiah  ^  in  any  quantity,  clearly  proves 
that  it  was  not  the  observation  of  nature  which 
led  to  monotheism  in  Israel. 

Nor,  again,  is  the  belief  in  the  one  God  to  be 
derived  fi'om  the  principle  of  exclusiveness, 
as  some  have  maintained  of  late.  This  national 
exclusiveness  is,  in  its  turn,  supposed  to  have 
been  caused  by  the  gradual  diminution  of  the 
Jewish  kingdom  to  so  small  a  territory  that 
there  was  no  longer  any  room  for  any  other 
gods.  Their  right  to  receive  worship  was  first 
of  all  contested,  and  then  their  existence  was 
denied.  But  this  explanation  is  manifestly  at 
fault.     In  the  first  place  belief  in  the  one  God 

»  Isa.  xl.  1 4-1 6,  2 1  -26,  xlii.  5,  xliv.  24,  xlv.  12-18,  xlviii.  1 3. 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS    139 

was,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  already  in  existence 
among  the  prophets  before  the  territory  of  Israel 
and  of  Judah  had  been  appreciably  diminished  ; 
and,  again,  it  may  be  observed  that  none  of 
Israel's  neighbours,  though  exposed  to  essen- 
tially the  same  historical  conditions  and  though 
each  had  its  principal  deity,  ever  attained  to 
monotheism.  Lastly,  there  can  be  no  manner 
of  doubt  that  the  prophets  in  nowise  felt  the 
shrinkage  of  the  territory  to  be  a  diminution  of 
Jahwe's  power  that  needed  any  kind  of  com- 
pensation. On  the  contrary,  the  prophets  saw, 
in  the  circumstances  which  led  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  kingdoms  of  Judah  and  of  Israel,  the 
very  proof  which  they  needed  of  the  omnipo- 
tence of  that  God  whose  messengers  they 
were  and  whom  they  conceived  as  alone  exist- 
ing. The  utmost  that  can  be  admitted  is  that 
the  monolatry  already  existing  in  Israel,  the 
belief  that  Israel  had  to  w^orship  Jahwe  alone, 
afforded  a  favourable  soil  for  the  rise  of  mono- 
theism, but  it  in  nowise  accounts  for  that  rise. 
The   national  gods  of  other  peoples  perished 


140  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

with    them,  because   they    had   no    prophets 
such  as  those  of  Israel. 

The  prophets'  behef  in  one  God  is  not 
founded  ultimately  upon  experience  of  His 
omnipotence  in  the  world  without,  but  upon 
experience  of  His  illimitable  power  and  His 
sole  authority  in  the  sphere  of  the  world  within. 
God  is  revealed  to  them  in  the  depths  of 
their  heart,  and  they  become  conscious  of  Him 
as  the  decisive  power  whose  sphere  of  activity 
knows  no  bounds,  and  is  especially  not  limited 
by  the  boundaries  of  the  land  and  people  of 
Israel.  God  is  felt  by  them  as  the  representa- 
tive, as  the  principle  of  all  that  is  good  and 
moral ;  He  has  an  absolute  worth,  and  exercises 
a  mighty  influence  on  all  that  experience  His 
true  being ;  at  the  same  time  He  is  the  power 
which  would  have  the  good  performed  uncon- 
ditionally. The  ethical  element  which  clung  to 
the  religion  of  Jahwe  from  its  very  first  start,  and 
was  only  forced  into  tlie  backgroimd  by  inter- 
mixture with  the  cultus  in  the  peasant  religion, 
forces  its  way  through  with  the  prophets ;  the 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS    141 

priority  in  religion  is  accorded  to  it  rather 
than  to  sacrifices  and  ceremonies,  and  its 
undisputed  sway  and  unchecked  development 
are  looked  upon  as  the  only  true  signs  of  a 
genuine  religious  temperament. 

If  we  regard  its  origin,  the  monotheism  of 
the  prophets  is  no  product  of  reflection,  but 
an  experience  of  the  heart ;  it  is  no  hypothesis, 
but  the  result  of  empirical  observation ;  it  is 
not  philosophical  but  ethical  monotheism.  That 
is  why  the  nature,  power,  and  claims  of  this 
one  God  are  entirely  different  to  those  of 
other  gods. 

We  can  prove,  in  the  clearest  possible 
manner,  from  the  prophets'  own  words,  that 
their  belief  in  the  one  God  arose  from  an 
inner  experience.  They  feel  God's  power  as 
an  inner  compulsion  which  cannot  possibly 
be  resisted.  A  psychical  constraining  force, 
conceived  as  a  call  from  God,  impels  the 
prophet  Amos  to  leave  his  herd  and  go  to 
Bethel  as  God's  messenger.  The  Israelites 
are    there    assembled    for    the    glad    harvest 


142  RELIGION    OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

festival,  and  the  prophet  announces  to  them 
the  destruction  of  the  kingdom.^  Amos 
himself  explains  the  irresistible  and  con- 
straining force  of  this  inner  compulsion  by 
producing  parallels  which  contain  just  as 
necessary  a  connection  of  cause  and  effect,  so 
that  we  can  conclude  from  the  one  to  the 
other,  and  they  show  us  that  the  prophet 
acts  with  the  certainty  of  an  involuntary 
reflex  motion  when  God  touches  his  spirit.^ 

"  Will  a  lion  roar  in  the  forest 

Unless  the  prey  be  there  for  him  ? 
Will  a  young  lion  cry  out  of  his  den 
Unless  he  have  taken  something  ? 

Does  a  bird  fall  to  the  ground 
Unless  a  weapon  have  struck  it  ? 

Shall  a  snare  spring  up  from  the  ground 
Unless  it  really  have  taken  something  ? 

Or  shall  the  trumpet  be  blown  in  a  city 
And  the  people  not  be  afraid  ? 

Or  shall  a  misfortune  happen  in  a  city 
And  Jahwe  hath  not  done  it  ? 


1  Amos  vii.  14  seq.  ^  Amos  iii.  4-6,  8. 


THE  RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS    Uii 

The  lion  roars 

Who  is  not  afraid  ; 
The  Lord  Jahwe  speaks 

Who  can  but  prophesy." 

Isaiah  feels  himself  seized  by  God's  hand 
with  irresistible  might/  so  that  he  now  judges 
the  position  of  the  land  quite  differently  to  his 
contemporaries.  As  he  stood  in  the  temple 
lost  in  adoration,  and  saw  Jahwe  sitting  upon 
a  throne,  high  and  lifted  up,  then  the  greatness 
and  the  sublimity  of  Jahwe  were  revealed  to 
him,  and  God  became  known  to  him  as 
representing  the  spiritual  and  moral  principle, 
as  the  Lord  of  the  whole  world. 

"  Holy,  holy,  holy,  is  Jahwe  of  hosts, 
The  whole  earth  is  full  of  the  glory." 

But  at  the  same  time  he  is  constrained  to 
enter  into  the  service  of  this  Lord,  and  to 
declare  the  divine  judgment  to  his  fellow- 
citizens.^ 

In  succinct  and  telling  words  Micah  indicates 
the  source  of  his  strength    and   power  which 

1  Isa.  viii.  11.  2  jga.  vi. 


144.   RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

embolden  him  to  stand  forth  as  prophet,  and  to 
cry  out  in  the  fece  of  his  adversaries  inspired 
by  the  gifts  they  have  received  ^ : 

"  But  I  am  full  of  power, 

And  full  of  judgment  and  of  might, 
To  declare  unto  Jacob  his  transgression, 
And  to  Israel  his  sin." 

Jeremiah's  testimony,  however,  to  the  all- 
compelhng  power  exercised  upon  him  by  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth  that  Jahwe  has 
revealed  to  him  is  at  once  the  profoundest 
and  clearest.  He  can  no  longer  take  counsel 
with  flesh  and  blood.  He  Jiiust  declare  the 
demands  of  Jahwe  in  spite  of  all  persecutions 
and  all  dangers.^ 

"  Thou  didst  entice  me,  I  let  myself  be  enticed  ; 
Thou  didst  seize  me,  didst  conquer ; 
I  am  become  a  laughing-stock  all  the  day, 
Every  one  mocketh  me. 

If  I  speak,  I  cannot  but  exclaim  : 

Iniquity  !      Violence  ! 
All  the  day  my  words  bring  down  upon  me 

Mockery  and  scorn. 

*  Micah  iii.  8.       ^  jgr,  xx.  7-10.     Duhm's  translation. 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS    145 

Yet  when  I  thought  I  will  cease 

I  will  speak  no  more  ; 
Then  it  was  as  a  glowing  fire, 

As  a  burning  in  my  bones. 

I  can  no  longer  hold  out, 

I  cannot  endure  it ; 
For  I  heard  many  hissing — • 

TeiTor  on  every  side  : — 

Let  us  denounce  him,  we  his 

Familiar  fi-iends  !     Watch  but 
For  him,  perhaps  he  will  make  a  mistake, 

And  we  shall  prevail  against  him." 

His  lament  that  all  that  he  does  is  in  vain  ^ 
is  very  impressive,  and  so,  too,  is  Jahwe's 
answer,^  which  constrains  him  in  spite  of  all 
to  stand  firm  against  his  adversaries.^ 

"  Never  sat  I  rejoicing  in  the  glad 
Assembly  : — solitaiy 
Because  of  thy  oppression  sat  I, 
Full  of  thy  indignation. 

Why  was  my  pain  perpetual. 

My  hurt  incurable  ? 
Thou  wast  unto  me  as  a  deceitful  brook 

Upon  which  there  is  no  relying. 

1  Jer.  XV.  1 7  seq.  2  jer.  xv.  1 9-2 1 . 

8  Jer.  XV.  17-21.     Duhm's  translation. 

10 


146   RELIGION  OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

Turn  and  I  will  grant  unto  thee  a  returning 
That  thou  mayest  stand  before  me. 

Speak  that  which  is  noble  without  blame 
And  thou  shalt  be  my  mouth. 

I  will  make  thee  unto  this  people 

A  fenced  wall. 
They  shall  storm  against  thee 

But  they  shall  not  prevail. 

I  am  with  thee,  thy  saviour 

And  thy  deliverer, 
I  will  loose  thee  out  of  the  hands 

Of  the  wicked  and  of  the  violent." 

We  realize  the  nature  of  this  power  which 
seized  hold  of  the  prophets  as  we  study  the  con- 
tents of  their  teaching,  and  especially  the  claims 
which  they  made.  Here  we  have  once  more 
the  clearest  proof  of  the  complete  difference 
between  the  monotheism  of  Chuen-aten  and 
that  of  the  prophets.  All  that  Chuen-aten 
attempted  was  ceremonial  reform  ;  the  prophets 
make  ethical  claims  in  the  name  and  in  the 
commission  of  their  God.  All  that  Chuen- 
aten  obtains  is  the  increased  power  of  his  one 
deity,  which  he  sets  up  in  the  place  of  the 
others.     It  remains  a   more   or   less   physical 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROrHETS   147 

power.  The  God  whom  the  prophets  serve 
is  a  power  of  a  completely  different  nature, 
a  spiritual  personality  of  an  entirely  ethical 
character.  The  absolute,  which  the  one  God 
represents,  is  realised  and  displays  itself  above 
all  in  the  sphere  of  ethics.  The  very  first  of 
the  prophets  mastered  this  new  conception 
with  unmistakable  certainty,  and  he  empha- 
sized the  characteristic  peculiarity  of  the  pro- 
phetic religion  when  he  places  side  by  side 
as    equivalent    variants    of    his    fundamental 

claim : 

"  Seek  the  good  and  ye  shall  live," 

and 

"  Seek  Jahwe  and  ye  shall  live."  ^ 

Henceforward  the  closest  union  between 
religion  and  ethics  is  of  the  very  essence 
of  the  prophetic  religion.  True  religion 
inevitably  leads  to  ethics.  The  only  proof 
that  a  truly  religious  man  can  give  of 
his  religion  is  a  consistent  moral  life,  and 
so,  too,  that  alone  is  true  m_orality  which  is 
founded  in  religion,  and  thence  derives  its 
^  Amos  V.  4,  6,  14. 


148   RELIGION   OF  THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 

strength.  Religion  and  ethics  form  a  whole, 
religion  being  the  roots  and  supplying  the 
dynamic,  and  ethics  the  fruit  and  displaying 
the  effects. 

The  position  which  the  prophets  occupy 
towards  the  cultus  and  the  law  proves  that 
this  intimate  connection  between  religion  and 
ethics — we  may  even  say,  in  a  certain  sense, 
their  identification — really  forms  the  prophetic 
teaching,  and  corresponds  to  their  thoughts 
about  religion. 

Not  one  of  the  prophets  ever  demanded  the 
offering  up  of  sacrifices  as  the  sign  of  a  pious 
and  religious  life.  On  the  contrary,  they  were 
always  the  outspoken  opponents  of  the  sacri- 
ficial cultus  practised  by  their  contemporaries. 
In  almost  every  one  you  can  read  the  fiat 
rejection  of  the  cultus.  The  words  of  Amos 
are  plain  enough : 

"  I  hate,  yes  I  despise  your  feasts, 
And  I  will  not  smell  at  your  festivals ; 
And  your  sacrificial  jrifts  I  do  not  want, 
And  the  sacrificial  meal  of  your  calves  I  will  not  regard. 


THE  RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS    149 

Away  from  nie  with  the  noise  of  your  songs, 

And  the  playing  of  your  harps  I  will  not  hear. 

Let  judgment  roll  down  as  waters 

And  righteousness  as  a  stream  that  will  never  run  dry."  ^ 

To  what  an  extent  the  practices  of  the 
people  at  the  holy  places,  where  were  offered 
the  sacrifices,  appeared  to  the  prophet  to  be  in 
contradiction  with  Jahwe,  he  shows  by  speak- 
ing of  this  cultus  as  nothing  less  than  sin  and 
transgression : 

"  Come  to  Bethel  and  transgress. 
To  Gilgal  and  transgress  yet  more  ; 
And  bring  on  the  mori'ow  your  sacrifices 
And  on  the  third  day  your  tithes."  ^ 

Hosea's  verdict  upon  the  Israelites,  who 
perform  tlieir  religious  duties  with  sacrifices 
instead  of  with  love,  is  identical  ^ : 

**  What  more  can  I  do  unto  thee,  O  Ephraim  ? 
What  more  can  I  do  unto  thee,  O  Israel .'' 
For  thy  love  is  as  a  morning  cloud, 
And  as  the  dew  that  vanisheth  early. 

1  Amos  v.  2 1  -24.         ^  Amos  iv.  4.         ^  Hosea  vi.  4-6. 


150   RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

Therefore  have  I  hewed  thee  by  prophets, 

I  have  slain  thee  by  the  words  of  my  mouth. 

For  I  desire  mercy,  not  sacrifice, 

And  the  knowledge  of  God,  not  burnt-offerings." 

Isaiah  passes  the  same  condemnation  on  the 
cultus  at  Jerusalem : 


"  Hear  the  word  of  Jahwe, 

Give  ear  unto  the  teach- 
ing of  our  God, 

What  shall  I  do  unto  the 
multitude  of  your  sacri- 
fices? 

I  am  tired  of  the  burnt- 
offering  of  rams 

In  the  blood  of  bullocks 
and  of  he-goats 

When  ye  come  to  see  my 
face. 

To  trample  my  courts. 

To  bring  oblations. 

New  moon  and  Sabbath 

Fasts  and  feasts 

And  if  ye  spread  forth 
your  hands, 

And  if  ye  make  ever  so 
many  prayers, 

Your  hands  are  full  of 
blood ; 


ye  rulers  of  Sodom  ; 
ye  men  of  Gomorrha ; 

saith  Jahwe. 


and  the  fat  of  calves ; 


I  have  no  delight. 

who  hath  required  this  ; 

fi-om  that  ye  shall  desist. 

it  is  an  abomination  to  me. 

I  cannot  endure. 

are  hateful  to  my  soul. 

I  will  hide  mine  eyes  from 

you. 
I  will  yet  not  hear. 


wash  you,  make  you  clean. 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS  151 

Put  away  the  evil  of  your      from  before  mine  eyes. 

doings 
Hasten  after  that  which      oppose  the  transgressor, 

is  right. 
Give  judgment    for    the      plead  for  the  widow."  ^ 

fathei'less, 

Jeremiah,  too,  rejects  the  cultus  with  un- 
mistakable directness  when  he  calls  to  the 
multitude  as  they  stream  into  the  temple: 
"Trust  ye  not  in  lying  words,  saying,  'The 
Temple  of  the  Lord,  the  Temple  of  the  Lord, 
the  Temple  of  the  Lord  are  these.'" ^  All 
sacrifice  is  in  vain  : 

"  Wherefore  is  there  for  me  incense 
That  Cometh  from  Saba  ; 
The  sweet  cane  from  the  far  country — 
They  are  not  sweet  to  me."  ^ 

It  is  a  certain  fact  for  the  prophets  that 
.Tahwe's  sacred  places,  even  the  temple  at 
Jerusalem,  might  be  destroyed  and  yet  religion 
would  continue  unharmed.*  Where  religion 
is  cultus  and  nothing  else,  it  is  valueless. 

1  Isa.  i.  10-17.  ^  Jer.  vii.  4. 

8  Jer.  vi.  20.     Duhm's  translation.      *  E.g.  Micah  iii.  12. 


152  RELIGION   OF   THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

This  repudiation  of  the  cultus  was  no  mere 
passionate  outburst  on  the  part  of  the 
prophets  :  they  saw  the  ilhision,  the  false  sense 
of  security  with  which  the  cultus  lulled  the 
multitude  to  sleep,  as  though  communion  with 
God  were  thereby  restored  and  attained  ;  they 
were  bound,  therefore,  to  recognise  in  the  cultus 
the  chief  hindrance  and  stumbling-block  to  the 
right  fellowship  with  God.  The  proof  of  being 
at  one  with  God  is  something  far  different  to 
attendance  at  the  noisy  feasts  and  all  that  was 
connected  with  them  :  it  is  to  do  good,  as  Amos 
expresses  it.  But  of  this  "  doing  good  "  the 
prophets  had  a  very  deep  conception — it  was  no 
mere  external  good  work.  To  realise  this  we 
need  but  look  at  the  way  in  which  the  inner 
power  is  described  on  which  the  doing  of  good 
depends.  According  to  Hosea  there  is  no  true 
knowledge  of  God  if  there  is  a  lack  of  good 
deeds,^  and  by  knowledge  of  God  he  does  not 
mean  anything  merely  intellectual,  but  the 
fine  feeling  and  perception  of  the  divine  being 

^  Hos.  iv.  1,  6,  V.  4,  vi.  6. 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS  153 

and  tlie  divine  strength  in  the  depths  of  the 
soul,  which  of  itself  leads  men  to  hope  in  God, 
and  urges  them  to  active  love  and  faith,  to 
justice  and  righteousness.  What  Hosea  calls 
"  hope  in  God  "  Isaiah  terms  faith,  and  some- 
times "quietness"  and  "confidence."  Just  as 
Amos  unites  Jahwe  and  life,  so  Isaiah  places 
faith  and  abiding  together — here  "  abiding  "  has 
the  same  deep  meaning  as  life — when  he  says  : 
"If  ye  have  no  faith,  there  is  no  staith  for 
you  "  ;  ^  or,  "  He  that  believeth  shall  not  give 
way."  ^  Just  as  in  Hosea  hope  in  God  is  the 
condition  of  salvation,  so  with  Isaiah  it  is 
confidence. 

"For       thus      spake      the  Jahwe,    the    Holy    One    of 

Lord,  Israel, 

In  returning  and  rest  lies  your  salvation. 

In  quietness  and   in  con-  consists  your  strength  ; 

fidence 

But  ye  would  not,  and  ye  said  No  ! "  ^ 

"Faith,"  too,  then  has  nothing  purely  in- 
tellectual about  it :  hke  Hosea  s  knowledge  of 
God,  it  is  man's  response  to  his  perception  of 

1  Isa.  vii.  9.  2  isa.  xxviii.  I6.  ^  Isa.  xxx.  15. 


154  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

the  divine  strength  by  the  inner  sense.  The 
knowledge  of  God  and  faith  are  therefore  no 
human  achievements,  but  effects  of  the  divine 
strength,  and,  therefore,  we  have  a  proof  of 
union  with  God  wherever  pure  moral  action 
proceeds  fi'om  them  and  the  fellowship  with 
God  is  a  reality  and  not  illusion,  as  in  the 
cultus. 

The  fact  that  the  prophets  have  a  very  clear 
perception  of  the  difference  between  mere 
legalism  and  true  morality  shows  us  that  this 
inner  connection  of  "  doing  good  "  with  Jahwe 
is  their  chief  concern.  What  is  the  use,  says 
Hosea,  of  giving  Israel  so  many  precepts  ? 
They  have  no  understanding  for  them,  they 
will  only  regard  them  as  uncalled-for  demands 
made  upon  them  by  a  foreigner^;  and  Isaiah 
calls  the  people's  fear  of  God  a  commandment 
of  men  learnt  by  rote  ^  because  they  approach 
Jahwe  with  their  mouth  only  and  honour  him 
only  with  their  lips,  but  their  heart  is  far  from 
Him.       This   distinction,   however,  has   been 

1  Hos.  viii,  12.  2  Jsa   xxix.  13. 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS  155 

most  clearly  realised  by  the  deepest  of  all  the 
prophets,  Jeremiah.  He  looked  upon  it  as  a 
danger  that  the  demands  of  God  should  be 
collected  in  a  book  of  the  law.  As  a  result 
he  expected  that  mere  legalism  would  take 
the  place  of  true  moral  conduct.  And  he  saw 
how  this,  his  foreboding,  was  realised  ;  how 
men  were  self-deceived,  thinking  themselves 
wise  through  possession  of  the  Thora,  while 
in  reality  they  despised  Jahwe's  word.  ^  He 
knew  that  where  true  religion  is,  there  is  a 
force  which  leads  men  always  and  everywhere 
to  the  practice  of  justice  and  righteousness,  of 
love  and  pity,  far  better,  far  more  powerfully 
and  thoroughly  than  mere  knowledge  of  the 
law,  which  in  the  best  of  cases  only  does 
what  the  law  demands,  but  is  not  able  to 
meet  all  the  changes  and  chances  of  this 
life,  nor  is  it  prepared  for  all  the  individual 
instances  which  present  themselves.  The 
living,  immediate  connection  between  religion 
and  morality,  between  God  and  man,  is  not 

^  Jer.  viii.  8  seq. 


156  HELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

to  be  interrupted  by  the  interposition  of  a  law, 
and  when  there  is  no  fellowship  with  God 
then  "the  foreskin  of  the  heart  must  be 
circumcised,"  i.e.  whatever  hinders  man's  recep- 
tivity must  be  removed,  and  there  must  be  a 
thorough  reformation,  a  "  breaking  up  of  the 
fallow  ground,"  otherwise  it  is  but  "  a  so^nng 
among  thorns,"  Mt  is  a  Hght  superficial  healing 
of  an  inner  breach.  ^  Jahwe  must  Himself 
be  enthroned  in  power  in  every  heart  with- 
out any  intermediary ;  then  religion  will  be  a 
constant  and  mighty  impulse  to  morality,  and 
will  fashion  the  character  of  the  religious  man 
so  that  it  be  moral.  For  the  prophets,  there- 
fore, rehgion  is  not  only  meaningless,  it  is  not 
genuine  religion  at  all  unless  it  exercises  a 
moral  power  in  life ;  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
morality  is  imperfect  and  weak  and  half- 
developed  when  it  lacks  the  motive  power 
of  religion.  Religion  is  an  illusion  when  it 
develops  no  power  for  the  guidance  of  life, 
and  morality  an  empty  show  where  it  is  not 

*  Jer.  iv.  3  seq.  2  j^j.  yj    24. 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS  157 

rooted   in   the   innermost   heart    of    man,   in 
religion.    . 

The  proof  of  the  correctness  of  this  inti- 
mate, inner  connection  between  religion  and 
morality,  as  characteristic  of  the  prophetic 
teaching,  is  to  be  found,  firstly,  in  the  fact 
that  there  is  no  trace  of  legalism  in  the 
prophets'  demands — the  prophets  never  con- 
sented to  be  lawgivers.  Later,  it  is  true,  men 
attempted,  as  we  shall  see,  to  formulate  a 
law  which  should  prove  adequate  to  the 
demands  made  by  the  prophets.  The  way  in 
which  the  project  was  carried  out  shows,  how- 
ever, how  little  these  well  -  meaning  men 
had  grasped  the  true  significance  of  the  pro- 
phetic religion,  for  they  included  ceremonial 
regulations  in  their  laws,  and  even  assigned 
a  considerable  place  to  them.  And,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  thought  of  a  reward  apart 
from  the  fulfilling  of  the  divine  will  is  alto- 
gether foreign  to  the  prophets.  The  motive 
for  action  is  never  the  thought  of  reward, 
but    an    inner     compulsion.       The    impulse 


158  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

does  not  come  from  the  world  without,  but 
ultimately  from  God.  The  true  knowledge 
of  God — that  is  Hosea's  name  for  religion — 
embraces  the  knowledge  of  what  Jahwe  is  and 
wills,  and,  above  all,  of  what  He  has  done  and 
yet  does,  and  so  it  produces  a  feeling  of  grati- 
tude for  His  gifts.  That  is  why  the  prophets 
so  often  point  out  how  Jahwe  cares  for  His 
people  like  a  father,  how  He  has  nurtured  them 
and  given  them  strength,  or  granted  them 
deliverance  from  Egypt  and  their  enemies. 
When  Jahwe  is  acknowledged,  and  religion  a 
direct  power,  there  is  no  room  for  the  thought 
of  reward,  but  only  for  thanksgiving  for  God's 
goodness. 

It  will  be  evident  from  the  foregoing 
observations  that  the  true  character  of  the 
prophetic  religion  will  be  best  represented  by 
calling  it  a  pure  ethical  monotheism.  And,  in 
so  doing,  the  emphasis  must  be  laid  on  the 
qualifying  adjective.  This  religion  is  not 
merely  a  monotheism,  it  is  a  purely  ethical 
monotheism.     The   importance  thus  attached 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE  PROPHETS    159 

to  the  ethical  side  of  rehgion  also  distinctly 
distinguishes  the  prophetic  religion  from  the 
pantheistic  monotheism  of  Chiien-aten.  Jahwe 
is  not  only  an  abstract  omnipotence,  He  is 
an  almighty  spiritual  personality  who  wills 
the  good  and  represents  the  good  ;  He  is  there- 
fore, if  the  expression  may  be  applied  to 
God,  a  personality  with  an  outspoken  ethical 
character. 

Having  thus  determined  the  essential  char- 
acteristics of  the  prophetic  religion,  that  which 
differentiates  it  from  the  peasant  religion  will 
strike  us  without  the  need  of  further  investi- 
gation. The  peasant  religion  was  tolerant  of 
other  deities,  even  if  it  reserved  Jahwe  for 
the  people  of  Israel  alone.  Other  peoples  could 
honour  their  own  gods  and  Israel  did  not 
deny  their  existence,  and  even  the  belief  in 
"  demons  "  and  deities  for  the  smaller  events 
of  daily  life  was  by  no  means  in  opposition  to 
the  belief  in  Jahwe,  the  God  of  the  people 
and  of  the  country.  Hence  the  Israelites 
were  perpetually  exposed  to   the  temptation 


160  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

of  worshipping  other  gods  at  the  same  time 
as  J  ah  we,  especially  when  political  alliances 
sanctioned  the  power  of  foreign  nations  and 
their  gods.  The  entrance  of  Assyrian  deities 
into  Jerusalem,  and  even  into  the  temple,  is 
easily  intelligible  at  a  time  when  Juda  was  a 
vassal  state  of  the  Assyrian  empire,  as  in  the 
seventh  century,  under  JNIanasse  and  his  suc- 
cessors. The  peculiar  political  circumstances 
of  the  last  decades  of  the  Jewish  kingdom 
account  for  the  presence  of  Egyptian  cults  in 
addition. 

One  cannot,  however,  call  the  prophetic 
religion  exactly  intolerant ;  it  is  intolerant  of 
sin  and  the  cultus.  Its  opposition  first  and 
foremost  to  all  that  hinders  true  religion, 
corresponds  with  its  ethical  nature.  The 
teaching  of  the  prophets  deals,  therefore,  with 
unrighteousness  and  uncharitableness,  with 
lying  and  trickery  in  everyday  life,  with  all 
the  social  evils  that  afflict  the  people,  with 
the  delusions  produced  by  the  feasts  and  sacri- 
ficial systems,  and  with  insistence  on  the  true 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS   161 

nature  of  Jahwe,  on  His  holiness  and  om- 
nipotence. But  we  should  look  in  vain  in 
the  prophetic  writings  for  learned  discussions 
intended  to  enlighten  the  people  as  to  the 
non-existence  of  the  other  gods.  It  is  notice- 
able that,  generally  speaking,  what  is  called 
fanaticism  is  unknown  to  them.  Chuen-aten 
waged  war  against  his  opponents  as  a  fanatical 
advocate  of  monotheism ;  he  obtained  recog- 
nition for  his  religion,  but  it  was  by  means 
of  force.  Mohammed,  another  supporter  of 
monotheism,  enjoined  his  followers  to  regard 
war  against  the  unbelievers  as  a  sacred 
duty.  It  seems  as  though  fanatical  zeal  finds 
the  readiest  entrance  where  the  head  plays 
the  chief  part  and  the  understanding  has  set 
up  a  new  proposition,  then  it  will  fight  with 
fire  and  sword  for  the  creed  it  has  proclaimed 
and  the  formula  which  seems  so  perfect ; 
whereas,  when  the  heart  is  chiefly  affected,  and 
has  experienced  the  living  power  of  God, 
then  it  is  possible  to  hold  one's  own  opinions 

very  decidedly  and  to  be  very  earnest  indeed 

11 


162  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

about  them,  and  yet  be  patient  in  the  full 
confidence  that  God,  whose  almighty  power  is 
a  matter  of  personal  experience,  will  win  the 
day.  Mohammed  is  much  more  nearly  related 
to  Chuen-aten  than  to  the  prophets  of  Israel : 
his  monotheism  gives  one  rather  the  impression 
of  a  simple  sum,  wherein  the  different  deities — 
as  in  Chuen-aten's  case  the  different  powers 
of  nature  —  are  reduced  to  one,  in  order  to 
have  a  better  explanation  of  the  world's 
economy  to  hand.  In  the  case  of  the  prophets 
the  formula  which  came  afterwards  is  of 
little  importance ;  the  living  power  is  every- 
thing. Other  gods  do  not,  therefore,  present 
any  temptation  for  them  ;  they  must  of  them- 
selves recede  before  the  one  true  God  and 
vanish  entirely ;  they  are  but  Elilim,  as  Isaiah 
calls  them — whether  this  is  a  diminutive  of  El 
(God)  or  a  derivative  of  Al  (nothing)  =  nullities. 
Therefore  the  prophets  need  not  enter  upon 
a  special  polemic  against  these  gods,  although 
their  relation  to  them  is  different  to  that  of 
their   fellow-countrymen  ;    in  any  case   there 


THE   RELIGION   OF   THE   PROPHETS  163 

is  no  doubt  as  to  their  attitude  towards  them. 
Moreover,  the  stories  of  the  creation  of  the 
world  ^  and  of  the  flood,  parallels  to  which  are 
to  be  found  amongst  other  peoples,  and  espe- 
cially close  ones  amongst  the  Assyrians  and 
Babylonians,  show  us  how  gi-eat  an  influence 
the  prophets  exercised  upon  the  people's  con- 
ception of  Jahwe.  No  trace  is  left  of  the 
polytheism  of  the  heathen.  Jahwe  alone 
creates  the  earth,  men,  plants,  and  animals, 
He  alone  calls  forth  the  flood.  There  is,  of 
course,  no  mention  of  the  strife  and  intrigue 
of  the  Babylonian  gods  with  each  other,  nor 
is  the  origin  of  the  flood  ascribed  to  the  pass- 
ing whim  of  a  God.  And  so,  too,  any  details 
in  the  prophets  that  reminded  one  of  tales 
about  the  deeds  of  the  gods,  derived  from 
Babylono- Assyrian  sources,  were  at  once  trans- 
ferred to  Jahwe,  and  only  served  to  describe 
the  working  of  the  one  true  God.  The  myths 
of  the  heathen  furnished  the  colours  for  the 
picture   of  Jahwe's   deeds,   but  the    heathen 

^  Gen.  ii.  4  seq. 


164  RELIGION   OF  THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 

gods  themselves  silently  vanished  into  nothing- 
ness. 

Many  a  popular  conception  of  God  could 
not  be  maintained  in  the  light  of  the  prophetic 
teaching.  To  the  people  the  images  of 
Jahwe  that  existed  in  various  sacred  places 
were  entirely  unobjectionable.  But  the  holy 
and  majestic  God,  a  purely  spiritual  being, 
would  no  longer  be  thought  of  in  connection 
with  any  image,  and  far  less  be  represented  by 
an  image.  If  this  God,  thus  exalted  above 
everything  earthly,  was  not  to  be  dragged 
down  again  into  the  sphere  of  the  visible, 
the  images  had  to  disappear.  That  is  why 
as  early  a  prophet  as  Hosea  speaks  contemp- 
tuously of  the  golden  bull  of  the  northern 
kingdom  as  "  the  calf  of  Samaria,"  and  ridicules 
the  worship  paid  to  it  as  offered  to  a  work 
of  men's  hands. ^  Hezekiah's  destruction  of 
the  brazen  serpent,  the  Nehushtan  which  w^as 
derived  from  IMoses  and  had  hitherto  received 
offerings  of  incense,^  is  probably  to  be  ascribed 

^   Hos.  viii,  4—6,  X.  5,  xiii.  2.  ^2  Kings  xviii.  4. 


THE  RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS  165 

to  prophetic  influence.  In  any  case  it  was 
due  to  the  prophets  that  images  disappeared 
definitely  and  entirely  from  the  official  religion 
of  the  Jews.^ 

It  proved,  however,  to  be  a  far  harder  matter 
to  overcome  the  resistance  of  the  peasant 
religion  in  its  conception  of  the  relation 
between  Jahwe  and  Israel.  For  the  beUef 
that  Jahwe  and  Israel  were  indissolubly  bound 
together,  that  Jahwe  would  not  exist  without 
Israel,  and  that  Israel  could  therefore  reckon 
on  not  being  finally  abandoned,  was  one  of 
the  most  ineradicable  that  it  possessed.  The 
prophets  declare  the  exact  opposite  ;  for  them 
Jahwe  and  Israel  have  not  been  bound  to- 
gether for  ever  by  some  power  supposed  to  be 
superior  to  Jahwe ;  the  intimate  relation  that 
subsists  between  them  is  of  a  moral  nature ; 
its  duration  depends  above  all  else  on  the  per- 
formance by  the  Israelites  of  the  conditions 
imposed  upon  them  through  their  close  con- 
nection with  Jahwe.     Should  Israel  set  itself 

1  Ex.  XX.  i;  Deut.  iv.  12  seq.,  v.  8. 


166  RELIGION   OF  THE    OLD  TESTAMENT 

in  opposition  to  Jahwe's  will,  the  case  may  very 
well  arise  that  this  connection  will  be  dissolved. 
Nor  did  the  prophets  put  this  last  consequence 
before  Israel  merely  as  a  hypothetical  case. 
They  declared  loudly  and  plainly  that  matters 
had  indeed  come  to  a  crisis,  and  that  in  the 
day  of  judgment  that  was  at  hand  Jahwe 
would  annul  His  covenant  with  Israel.  This 
complete  change  in  the  prophetic  conception 
is  easily  to  be  explained  ;  it  is  the  simple  con- 
sequence of  the  ethical  nature  of  the  prophetic 
religion.  If  Jahwe  represents  the  good,  the 
ethical  and  spiritual  principle,  then  this  has  but 
to  be  grasped  in  its  depth  for  all  national 
restrictions  to  be  laid  aside ;  for  what  is  good 
cannot  be  limited  by  the  boundaries  of  the 
people  of  Israel  or  explained  as  merely  signi- 
fying what  is  profitable  for  Israel  and  con- 
duces to  Israel's  benefit.  Good,  properly 
understood,  has  from  the  very  first  an  inter- 
national significance ;  it  is  a  conception  which 
belongs  to  a  higher  sphere  than  that  of  com- 
munities formed  either  naturally  or  by  chance. 


TPIE    RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS  167 

The  prophets  came  forth  from  the  people  of 
Israel,  and  they,  too,  looked  upon  Jahwe  as  the 
God  of  Israel.  It  is  all  the  more  interesting 
to  notice  how  the  knowledge  of  the  ethical 
nature  of  religion  reacts  against  the  popular 
view.  To  begin  with  Amos,  the  earhest,  it  is 
instructive  in  the  highest  degree  to  observe 
how  he  destroys  the  religious  illusion  of  the 
Israelites.^  After  announcing  the  impending 
judgment  in  his  first  two  chapters  as  a  storm 
that  passes  over  the  neighbouring  peoples,  but 
stands  still  over  Israel  in  order  to  discharge 
itself  with  all  its  might  and  suffer  no  one  to 
escape,  he  proceeds  to  give  an  entirely  new 
interpretation  to  the  privileges  which  the 
Israelites  maintained  that  they  possessed. 
The  Israelites  made  use  of  the  same  to  lull 
their  conscience  to  sleep ;  but  Amos  showed 
that  the  high  privileges  involved  an  equally 
high  responsibility,  an  all  the  more  faith- 
ful and  exact  fulfilment  of  the  will  of 
Jahwe. 

1  Amos  iii.  1,  2. 


168  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

"  Hear  the  word  of  Jahwe,  ye  Israelites  ; 

Ye  are  best  known  to  me  ofall  the  families  upon  earth ; 

Therefore — I     will     visit  all  your  iniquities." 
upon  you 

But  at  the  end  of  his  prophecy  he  even 
throws  doubt  upon  these  privileges  altogether. 
The  deliverance  from  Egypt  is  no  decisive 
argument  for  Jahwe's  preference  for  Israel; 
the  Cushites  are  just  as  dear  to  him  as  the 
Israelites,  and  Jahwe  has  delivered  other 
nations  as  well.^ 

"  Are  ye  not  as  the  Cushites, 
Ye  Israelites  ?  saith  Jahwe, 

Have  not  I  brought  up  Israel  out  of  the  land  of  Egj'pt, 
And  the  Philistines  from  Kaphtor  and  the  Arameans 
from  Kir?" 

We  cannot  be  astonished  if  we  read  the 
announcement  of  entire  destruction  between 
the  lines  of  this  prophecy.  Amos  drew  the 
necessary  consequence  from  his  knowledge  of 
Jahwe  and  the  rotten  condition  of  Israel,  the 
immorality  and  unrighteousness,  the  haughty 
contempt  of  the  rich,  the   oppression   of  the 

^  Amos  ix.  2. 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS  169 

poor ;  the  destruction  of  the  commonwealth 
was  inevitable,  and  Jahwe  Himself  would 
destroy  it. 

Hosea  arrived  at  a  perfectly  similar  con- 
clusion. The  sections  in  the  middle  and  at 
the  end  of  his  book  which  present  another 
picture  are  later  additions,  as  is  the  case  with 
certain  portions  of  the  book  of  Amos.^  Hosea's 
is  a  deeper  nature :  we  can  feel  in  his  case 
more  than  in  Amos'  the  sorrow  and  compassion 
that  fill  the  prophet  when  he  is  obliged  to 
proclaim  Israel's  condemnation ;  he  knows 
from  bitter  experience  in  his  own  house  how 
painful  is  infidelity  where  one  had  a  right  to 
look  but  for  trust  and  love.  His  own  wife 
has  been  unfaitliful  to  him  :  all  that  he  can  do 
is  to  let  the  law  take  its  course  and  pun- 
ishment be  inflicted  on  the  adulteress.^  But 
Israel's  infidelity  to  its  God  is  just  as  great,  and 
least  of  all  may  this  God,  the  holy  God,  be 
moved  by  the  pain  which  the  judgment  causes 
Him  to  spare  the  godless  and  corrupt  nation. 

^  Cp.  the  K.  H.-C.  on  these  passages.         2  jjos.  ii.  5. 


170   RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

He  owes  it  to  His  own  nature  to  let  the  people 
die  ;  they  are  hopelessly  perverted,  and  there- 
fore He  calls  down  plague  and  pestilence  in 
addition  to  all  other  enemies  in  order  to  wipe 
them  off  the  face  of  the  earth.^  Such,  then,  is 
the  close  of  the  prophecy,  and  it  is  unmistakable 
enough.^ 

"  Hither  with  thy  plagues,  O  death  ! 
Hither  with  thy  pestilence^  Sheol ! 
Repentance  has  vanished  from  mme  eyes 
(All  compassion  with  Ephraim). 

Even  tho'  it  should  flourish  in  the   midst   of  the 

reed-grass, 
Yet  an  east  wind  shall  come  up  from  the  desert ; 
It  draws  near  and  dries  up  its  spring 
And  causes  its  fountains  to  fail. 

Samaria  shall  become  desolate  ; 

By  the  sword  they  shall  fall ; 

Their  children  shall  be  dashed  in  pieces 

And  their  women  with  child  shall  be  ripped  up." 

Partly  similar  judgments  are  pronounced 
by  the  other  prophets,  Isaiah,  Micah,  and 
Jeremiah,  until  finally,  in  the  year  586  B.C., 
destiny  is  accomplished  with  the  fall  of  Jeru- 

^  Hos.  xi.  8  scq.,  xiii.  12-xiv.  1.       ^  Hos.  xiii.  14—xiv.  1. 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS  171 

salem,  and  the  so-called  false  prophets  who  held 
fast  to  the  end  the  faith  of  the  peasant  religion 
in  the  indissoluble  bond  between  Jahwe  and 
Israel  were  driven  to  silence.  Isaiah  had  gained 
the  conviction  from  the  day  of  his  call  that 
his  prophetic  activity  would  have  to  last 
"  until  cities  be  waste  without  inhabitant  and 
houses  without  man,  and  the  land  becomes 
utterly  waste."  ^  At  the  very  beginning  of  his 
career  he  had  announced  the  downfall  of  the 
Jewish  state  under  the  judgment  of  Jahwe, 
which  would  rage  like  a  mighty  storm  from 
the  north  over  the  land,  and  would  sweep 
away  all  that  lifted  itself  up  from  the  ground  ^ ; 
and  nearly  at  the  end,  when  the  people  were 
giving  themselves  up  to  glad  rejoicing  at  the 
unexpected  retreat  of  the  Assyrians  in  the 
year  701,  he  lifts  up  his  lamentation  over  the 
downfall  of  Jerusalem  and  the  frivolity  of  its 
inhabitants,  who  do  not  notice  the  hour  that 
has  struck,  and  do  not  recognize  that  their  sin 
cannot  be  expiated,  but  must  be  punished  by 

1  Isa.  vi.  11.  2  isa,  U.  6-22. 


172   RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

death. ^     Micah  closes   his  prophecy  with  the 
stern  judgment : 

"  Therefore  for  your  sake 
Shall  Zion  be  ploughed  as  a  field ; 
And  Jerusalem  shall  become  heaps^ 
And  the  mountain  of  the  temple  as  a  forest-covered 
high  place."  2 

And  Jeremiah  never  wearies  of  opening  the 
eyes  of  the  bHnded  people,  so  that  it  may  at 
length  recognize  that  Jahwe  has  determined 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  and  the  temple. 

But  the  proof  of  the  untenability  of  the 
popular  view  as  to  the  relation  between  Jahwe 
and  Israel  did  not  exhaust  the  activity  of  the 
prophets.  They  went  on  to  draw  the  conse- 
quences of  their  own  deeper  conceptions  and 
to  explain  them.  The  relation  between  Jahwe 
and  Israel,  as  between  two  indissoluble  Victors, 
is  not  the  true  conception.  Israel  is  not  the 
factor  that  corresponds  to  the  nature  of  Jahwe. 
Jahwe's  purpose  is  not  that  Israel  should 
conquer,  but  rather  that  His  own  will,  which 
has  the  good   as   its   end   and   object,  should 

1  Isa.  xxii.  1-1  i.  2  Micah  iii.  12. 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS  173 

prevail.  The  two  corresponding  factors  are 
therefore  Jahwe  and  the  good  that  is  to  be 
brought  about  among  men,  their  salvation. 
Thus  the  unity  of  the  state  and  the  national 
citizenship  lose  their  religious  significance  ;  the 
individual  who  was  previously  merely  con- 
sidered as  a  member  of  the  nation  now  steps 
into  the  foreground,  and  comes  to  be  of 
importance  in  himself  for  religion ;  and  as  it 
no  longer  matters  what  nation  one  belongs  to, 
Jahwe  not  being  confined  to  the  territory  of 
any  one  people,  so  the  citizens  of  other  states, 
i.e.  the  whole  world,  enter  into  relationship  with 
Jahwe.  In  other  words,  individualism  and 
universalism  have  taken  the  place  of  national- 
ism in  religion.  The  germs  of  both  are  to  be 
found  in  the  prophetic  religion  from  the  very 
first.  We  find  outlines  of  the  later  teaching  in 
the  prophets  of  the  eighth  century,  but  neither 
doctrine  was  fully  developed  till  we  come  to 
the  last  of  the  series.  In  Jeremiah  we  find  the 
perfect  fruit  of  individualism  and  in  Deutero- 
Isaiah  that  of  universalism. 


174  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

In  Jeremiah's  individualism  we  have  reached 
the  high-water  mark  in  the  evolution  of  the 
profound  psychological  and  ethical  conception 
of  religion,  not  only  of  the  prophets  but  of 
the  O.T.  as  a  whole.  Experience  taught 
Jeremiah  through  his  dealing  with  the  Jews 
that  men  could  not  grow  better  or  change 
their  nature  by  their  own  efforts,^  that  the 
cultus  only  led  to  self-deception,^  and  that 
all  other  means,  such  as  new  ordinances  and 
laws,  did  not  touch  man's  heart.^  So  the 
prophet  is  compelled  to  recognize  that  the 
only  way  to  salvation  is  Jahwe's  direct  action 
on  the  individual,  like  that  which  he  has  felt 
himself.  Jahwe  must  therefore  take  the 
initiative,  He  must  implant  the  right  know- 
ledge in  every  human  heart,  and  grant  the  right 
mind.^  But  this  Jahwe  will  do,  for  it  is  the 
inevitable  result  of  His  nature :  Jahwe  can- 
not deny  Himself,    His  will  is  salvation  and 

^  Jer.  xiii.  23.  ^  Jer.  vii.  4  seq. 

^  Jer.  viii.  8,  xi.  20,  xvii.  10. 
4  Jer.  xxiv.  7,  xxxi.  31  seq. 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS  175 

righteousness  in  the  deepest  sense  of  the  word,^ 
and  they  will  be  realized ;  J  ah  we  Himself 
guarantees  that.  Thus  the  exact  knowledge 
of  human  nature  and  the  deep  conception  of 
the  divine  nature  meet  in  the  magnificent 
promise  ^ :  Jahwe  Himself  is  the  direct  saviour 
of  every  man  through  the  change  of  man's 
heart  to  the  true  knowledge  of  God  and  to  a 
moral  will. 

Universalism,  too,  in  the  shape  imparted  to 
it  by  Deutero-Isaiah,  opens  a  splendid  per- 
spective in  the  future,  just  as  individualism, 
whose  converse  it  is.  Jahwe,  the  almighty 
and  only  God,  wills  the  salvation  of  the  whole 
world.  His  will  is  destined  to  be  accomplished, 
for  He  brings  true  religion,  and  therewith 
welfare  and  salvation,  to  all  peoples.^  The 
election  of  Israel  enters  into  this  plan.  Israel 
is  not  the  final  goal  of  God's  thoughts,  but  the 
instrument   in    His   hand.     Israel   is  Jahwe's 

*  Jer.  xi.  20,  xxix.  11. 

2  Jer.  xxiv.  7,  xxxi.  31  seq. 

*  Isa.  xlii.  1-6^  xlix.  6,  lii.  10. 


176  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

servant,  and  has  the  important  mission  in  the 
world  of  obtaining  the  recognition  of  the  true 
religion  amongst  all  peoples  upon  earth.  It 
fulfils  this  task  not  by  any  great  achievements 
of  its  own,  but  by  that  which  God  brings  to 
pass  in  it.  If  God  calls  His  people  from  the 
death  of  the  exile  to  a  new  and  happy  life 
in  their  own  country,  then  they  are  the  wit- 
nesses of  God's  magnificent  power ;  the  eyes 
of  the  heathen  will  be  opened  as  to  Jahwe's 
true  nature,  and  He  will  be  revealed  as  the 
true  God,  the  redeemer.^  And  thus  prophecy 
finally  restores  again  the  covenant  between 
Jahwe  and  Israel  that  had  been  annulled. 
The  relation  between  them  does  not  rest,  as 
the  popular  religion  imagined,  upon  a  natural 
but  upon  an  historical  basis ;  Israel  is  not  the 
chosen  people  in  the  absolute  sense,  it  is  not 
the  final  goal  of  all  God's  ways  or  the  centre 
of  His  providence,  but  from  the  historical 
point  of  view  it  was  the  instrument  in  order 
that  the  ultimate  object  —  the  salvation  of 
1  Isa.  xlv.  14-17,  xlviii.  9-11,  lii.  9  seq.,  lii.  13-liii.  12. 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS    177 

all  peoples  —  might  be  realized.  Formerly 
prophecy  had  been  obliged  to  offer  an  un- 
compromising opposition  to  Israel's  arrogant 
claim  to  be  Jahwe's  only  people,  but  now, 
after  all,  in  this  sublime  representation  of  the 
divine  government  of  the  world,  this  same 
Israel  is  assigned  a  place  in  the  history  of 
religion  which  is  honourable  in  the  highest 
degree. 

The  true  expectations  of  the  prophets  as 
to  the  future  are  combined  in  Jeremiah's 
individualism  and  in  Deutero  -  Isaiah's  uni- 
versalism.  Here  we  have  another  character- 
istic distinction  between  the  popular  religion 
and  that  of  the  prophets.  The  prophetic 
outlook  on  the  future  is  painted  in  sober 
colours.  The  peasant  religion  looked  forward 
to  the  great  day  of  Jahwe  and  the  blessed  time 
of  peace  in  the  fruitful  home-country  that 
would  follow  thereon.  The  prophets  also 
announced  a  day  of  Jahwe  ;  but  that  would  be 
darkness  and  not  light,  and  it  would  bring  the 

people  not  happiness  but  misfortune,  for  it  did 

12 


178  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

not  mean  the  ^^cto^y  of  the  people  over  their 
enemies,  but  the  victory  of  J  ah  we  over  the 
people  which  deserved  destruction  owing  to 
its  disobedience  and  infidelity.  Jahwe  alone 
remains  on  the  battle-field.  His  cause  is 
victorious.  This  thought  completely  fills  the 
prophets'  minds  and  suffers  them  to  look  for- 
ward calmly  to  the  future.  Jahwe  is  everything 
to  them.  Jahwe's  presence  implies  complete 
blessedness  and  entire  ability  to  bring  about 
the  good.  The  prophets  abandoned  all  curious 
inquiry  as  to  the  way  in  which  this  future 
would  be  shaped.  They  could  leave  it  con- 
fidently in  Jahwe's  hands.  They,  at  any  rate, 
would  be  the  last  to  promise  the  people  a  new 
and  blessed  life  with  perhaps  a  good  and  pious 
prince  at  the  head  of  the  State :  the  people 
was  doomed  to  destruction  and  the  State  was 
bound  to  fall  into  decay.  Jahwe  was  bound 
neither  to  Israel  nor  to  Palestine.  Here, 
then,  we  hav^e  an  additional  reason  for  refusing 
to  ascribe  to  the  prophets  themselves  those 
pictures  of  Israel's  new  and  happy  future  in 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS  179 

Palestine  after  the  catastrophe  which  we  now 
find  inserted  in  their  writings.  They  are  the 
additions  of  a  later  age  which  attached  the 
expectations  of  the  peasant  religion  to  the  new 
starting-point  derived  from  the  prophecies  of 
Jeremiah  and  Deutero-Isaiah,  and  once  more 
reverted  more  or  less  to  the  assumption  of  a 
natural  connection  between  Jahwe  and  Israel. 
Naturally,  too,  the  prophets  never  imagined 
that  they  were  giving  an  apocalyptic  picture 
of  the  end  of  the  world  when  they  described 
the  crisis  and  the  catastrophe  that  were  im- 
pending over  the  people.  They  described  the 
judgment  to  which  the  people  of  Israel  was 
doomed ;  it  was  only  later  writers  who  read 
into  their  statements  an  eschatology,  pro- 
phecies of  the  end  of  the  world,  of  the  great 
crisis  of  the  final  judgment  of  the  world. 

Where  Jahwe  was  so  absolutely  one  and 
all  as  He  was  in  the  prophets,  no  other  divine 
beings  could  subsist  beside  Him.  In  the 
peasant  religion  many  traces  still  lingered  of 
that  belief  in  spirits  which  the  Israelites  had 


180  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

brought  -s^-ith  them  from  the  desert  or  taken 
over  from  the  Canaanite  peasants.  Like  the 
gods  of  the  foreign  nations,  these  lower  powers 
were  bound  to  vanish  before  the  Almighty 
God.  It  may  certainly  be  ascribed  to  the 
influence  of  the  prophetic  religion  that,  in 
contrast  to  the  other  religions  of  the  nearer 
East,  Israel  shows  so  few  traces  of  magic  and 
exorcism,  of  divination  and  "  demons."  This 
stage  of  superstition  is  past.  Neither  magic 
nor  sorcery  have  any  longer  any  standing  in 
the  religion  of  Israel.  We  find  no  formulae  of 
exorcism  in  the  O.T.  The  spirits  of  the  dead, 
too,  have  lost  their  power :  exorcism  of  the 
dead  and  inquiry  of  the  dead,  as  well  as  all 
the  mourning  customs  which  remind  one  of 
the  old  cultus  and  sacrifices  to  the  dead,  are 
forbidden,  as  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  the 
Israelitish  religion.  Finally,  Sheol  had  no 
significance  in  the  religion  of  the  propliets ; 
death  did  not  present  any  obstacle  to  their 
behef  in  the  God  of  salvation,  and  tlierefore 
there   was   no   need    for   them   to   bring   the 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS  181 

conception  of  Sheol  into  relation  with  their 
behef.  Jahwe  alone  was  their  hope  ;  as  they 
could  confidently  leave  in  His  hands  the 
shaping  of  the  future  and  the  realization 
of  their  salvation,  they  were  not  driven 
to  curious  inquiries  as  to  their  fate  after 
death. 

Through  the  prophets  religion  was  elevated 
into  the  pure  sphere  of  morals.  The  religion 
of  the  prophets  develops  the  germs  of  the 
nomad  religion ;  the  pure  conception  of  the 
ethical  motive  in  religion  in  all  its  depth  and 
strength  led  to  the  casting  aside  of  the  national 
limitations  which  clung  to  the  two  earlier 
stages  of  the  development  and  to  the  rejection 
of  the  heathen  element  in  the  cultus  which 
the  peasant  religion  had  incorporated.  With 
unflinching  consistency  the  prophets  place 
their  ethical  ideas  in  the  centre  of  their  teach- 
ing ;  the  peculiarity  of  their  conception  is  the 
living  organic  connection  between  morality 
and  religion.  It  is  true  that  there  have  been 
similar  tendencies  in  other  religions  ;  but  they 


182  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

remained  weak  beginnings,  and  their  traces  were 
soon  lost.  So  it  was  in  Assyria  and  Babylonia, 
even  though,  perchance,  some  deity  there  de- 
manded of  its  worshippers  their  exclusive  con- 
fidence ;  so  it  was  in  Egypt,  where  we  see  the 
first  faint  beginnings  of  a  religion  of  an  inward 
character  at  the  end  of  the  new  monarchy. 
''In  ^ilentio  et  spe  shall  man  rely  upon  the 
help  of  his  God."  For  this  growth  was 
nipped  in  the  bud,^  whereas  in  the  prophets 
the  religion  of  the  heart  was  developed  and 
the  seed  bore  the  perfect  fruit.  The  prophets 
seem  to  live  on  dizzy  heights  far  above  us, 
with  their  wonderful  firmness  and  their  un- 
troubled joy,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  they 
come  before  us  in  the  greatest  simplicity.  No 
profound  learning  is  needed  to  understand  the 
prophets — faith,  trust  in  the  Almighty,  exalted 
God,  in  all  cases  and  under  all  circumstances, 
that  is  all.  This  faith  fills  men  with  confidence 
and  courage,  it  preserves  them  from  despond- 
ency and  despair,  its  fruit  is  a  life  of  strenuous 

1  Erman^  Aegypt.  ReL,  p.  86. 


THE   RELIGION   OF  THE   PROPHETS  183 

activity  in  righteousness  and  kindly  dealing, 
its  end  the  healthy  development  of  social 
intercourse. 

Whence  did  the  prophets  derive  this  religion 
of  theirs  ?  We  have  already  seen  that  they 
ascribe  their  inspiration  to  God's  immediate 
action.  Jahwe  Himself  laid  irresistible  hold 
upon  them  and  revealed  Himself  to  them 
in  all  His  might.  Their  perception  of  this 
might  was  in  their  internal  consciousness. 
The  influence  was  a  psychical  one — only  in 
this  way  could  they  become  aware  of  the 
ethical  nature  of  religion.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  man's  psychical  nature  has  physical 
effects,  but  these  latter  are  neither  the  primary 
cause  nor  are  they  the  inftillible  signs  of  a 
true  divine  inspiration.  The  test  of  the 
prophet  is  therefore  not  the  form  in  which 
the  divine  operation  manifests  itself — neither 
ecstasy  nor  cataleptic  attacks,  neither  trances 
nor  "  hearing  words  "  and  "  seeing  visions  " — 
but  the  contents  of  his  message :  the  close 
organic  connection  between  religion  and  ethics. 


CHAPTER  IV 

The  Legal  Religion 

The  prophetic  religion  had  only  taken  firm 
footing  within  a  very  restricted  circle.  It 
was  represented  first  and  foremost  by  these 
great  men,  the  prophets  themselves,  and,  in 
addition  to  these,  by  a  little  group  of  disciples 
and  adherents  whom  they  had  gathered  round 
them  ;  such  were  Isaiah's  band  of  disciples  and 
Jeremiah's  trusty  friends  who  defended  him  in 
case  of  need,  amongst  them  his  faithful  com- 
panion Baruch.  But,  of  course,  we  are  justified 
in  supposing  that  a  great  many  others,  whose 
names  have  not  come  down  to  us,  were  con- 
vinced of  the  truth  of  the  prophetic  message 
and  became  the  prophets'  associates  ;  it  is  a 
striking  fact  that  simple  folk,  such  as  Amos  of 

184 


THE   LEGAL   RELIGION  185 

Tekoa  and  Micah  of  Moresheth,  were  fervent 
champions  of  the  prophetic  faith.  But  the 
mass  of  the  people  was  not  carried  away  by 
the  prophetic  movement ;  they  lacked  the 
necessary  discernment  for  the  hidden  working 
of  the  power  of  God ;  they  were  as  yet  too 
much  under  the  influence  of  the  prejudices  of 
the  traditional  religion.  The  prophets  them- 
selves had  realized  that  as  they  in  their  own 
case  had  experienced  it,  so  each  individual  must 
feel  God's  mighty  power  working  within  his 
heart,  so  that  each  might  acquire  an  immediate 
living  impression  of  this  all-compelling  power, 
and  receive  the  impulse  to  walk  according 
to  His  will.  But  the  time  had  not  yet  come 
for  this — the  people  as  a  whole  was  far  from 
being  ripe  for  it. 

The  influence  which  the  prophets  exercised 
upon  the  religion  of  Israel  was,  however,  very 
great.  It  is  thanks  to  the  prophets  that  the 
exile  and  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  and 
of  the  temple  did  not  involve  the  downfall 
of  the    Israelitic   religion.     It   was   only   the 


186  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

national  peasant  religion  that  perished.  But 
under  the  influence  of  the  prophets  rehgion 
had  entered  upon  a  new  stage  of  development, 
and  had  taken  up  into  itself  such  important 
prophetic  elements  tliat  it  did  not  feel  the 
downfall  of  the  State  as  a  deathblow  to  itself, 
but  was  rather  able  to  see  in  it  a  proof  of  its 
own  truth.  The  result  of  this  evolution  was 
completed  by  the  fifth  century,  when,  under 
the  protection  of  the  Persian  government, 
Nehemiah  introduced  the  law,  which  Ezra 
had  brought  with  him  from  Babylon,  in  the 
congregation  at  Jerusalem.  From  that  time 
onwards  the  Jewish  religion  has  never  altered  ; 
its  essential  character  has  remained  unaffected 
by  any  changes.  Though  much  has,  of  course, 
necessarily  been  modified,  through  the  stress 
of  circumstances  the  Jewish  religion  has,  till 
this  day,  not  got  beyond  the  stage  which  it 
then  reached.  The  word  of  the  Talmudic 
sage  holds  good  now  as  ever :  "  As  a  fish  dies 
out  of  the  water,  so  perisheth  a  Jew  as  soon 
as  he  quits  the  Torah." 


THE   LEGAL  RELIGION  187 

The  shortest  designation  for  this  new  and 
last  stage  of  the  religion  of  Israel  is  "  legal " 
religion.  For  its  most  characteristic  feature 
is  the  law,  more  especially  the  written  law, 
the  Torah.  The  will  of  God  is  stereotyped 
in  a  law  reduced  to  writing,  and  regarded  as 
strictly  regulative.  This  it  is  that  most  clearly 
distinguishes  this  stage  from  the  three  pre- 
ceding, and  contributed  more  than  anything  else 
to  arrest  all  development.  Within  Judaism 
itself  it  was  impossible  for  the  stage  thus 
reached  to  pass  on  into  anything  higher. 
When  a  religion  has  become  a  book-religion, 
and  its  followers  are  bound  to  a  sacred  book, 
which  is  conceived  as  a  law,  then  all  further 
evolution  is  excluded ;  all  that  can  be  done  is 
the  exposition  and  application  of  the  material 
already  to  hand ;  the  holy  book  must  be  ex- 
plained, and  its  principles  adapted  to  special 
circuinstances  as  they  arise.  In  place  of  the 
prophets  and  priests  who,  in  earlier  times, 
handed  down  the  will  of  God  to  the  people, 
we   have  teachers    of   the    law   and    scribes. 


188  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

Religion,  which  was  before  essentially  a  matter 
of  life,  comes  to  be  more  and  more  an  object 
of  doctrine ;  almost  more  important  than 
religion  is  theology. 

Several  stages  can  be  distinguished  in  the 
development  of  the  legal  religion.  The  first 
goes  back  to  pre-exilic  times  in  the  reign  of 
Josiah.  It  was  then  that  the  Deuteronomic 
law  arose,  and  was  forcibly  introduced  into 
the  Jewish  state  at  the  royal  instigation. 
It  represents  an  attempt  to  satisfy  the  pro- 
phetic demands  to  a  certain  extent  by  a 
reform  of  the  worst  excesses  of  the  cultus. 
The  initiators  of  this  reform  were  practical 
people,  who  recognized  that  something  must 
be  done,  but  who  had  not  grasped  the  real 
meaning  of  the  prophetic  religion.  When 
all  was  said  and  done  it  was  a  hopeless  under- 
taking —  an  attempt  to  heal  a  deep-seated 
disease  by  a  skimming  of  the  ulcerous  surface, 
or  to  give  new  life  to  a  decaying  tree  by 
external  props  and  stays.  The  reforms  that 
were  thus  inaugurated  did  not  meet  the  real 


THE   LEGAL  RELIGION  189 

intentions  of  the  prophets.  The  prophets 
had  opposed  the  cultus  as  a  whole ;  the 
Deuteronomic  law  prohibited  all  worship  in 
the  holy  places  in  the  land,  but  sanctioned 
the  cultus  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  and 
assigned  a  greater  importance  to  it.  Excellent 
as  had  been  the  reformers'  intentions,  it  was 
not  religion  but  the  cultus  which  profited  by 
their  measures ;  the  illusion  which  was  bound 
up  with  the  sacrificial  system  continued 
unimpaired ;  in  fact,  increased  vitality  was 
imparted  to  it,  as  it  could  now  appeal  to  a 
reformed  cultus  reinstated  according  to  God's 
will.  Deuteronomy  included,  it  is  true,  many 
humane  provisions,  but  all  this  was  of  no  avail. 
The  interposition  of  a  law  as  an  absolute 
authority  between  God  and  the  human  soul 
is  opposed  to  the  very  core  and  centre  of  the 
prophetic  teaching. 

This  "legal"  tendency  was  further  de- 
veloped during  the  exile  by  the  prophet 
Ezekiel  and  the  so-called  law  of  holiness. 
Ezekiel's   scheme  for   the  future  constitution 


190  RELIGION  OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

of  Israel,  which  concerns  itself  far  more 
with  ceremonial  and  ecclesiastical  than  with 
political  regulations,  shows  us  to  what  an 
extent  he  is  a  prophet  of  Deuteronomic  spirit. 
Things  have  now  come  to  such  a  pass  that  a 
prophet  draws  up  regulations  for  the  cultus, 
lays  down  laws  for  festivals,  and  draws  the 
plans  for  a  new  temple.  In  like  manner  the 
so-called  law  of  holiness  in  Leviticus  xvii.-xxvi. 
contains  far  more  minute  ceremonial  regula- 
tions than  laws  concerning  civic  life.  The 
"  holy  "  God  demands  the  exact  fulfilment  of 
the  ceremonial  as  well  as  of  the  moral  law. 

This  tendency  received  its  clearest  expres- 
sion in  the  priests'  code,  which  may  be  taken 
as  expressing  the  conclusion  of  the  whole 
movement,  as  it  came  to  be  the  unchangeable 
foundation  of  later  Judaism.  The  priests' 
code  came  into  being  in  the  course  of  the 
fifth  century  among  the  exiles  in  Babylon. 
Perhaps  we  may  consider  Ezra,  who  brought 
the  law  to  Jerusalem,  as  its  author,  but  this  is 
by  no  means  certain.     It  was  an  easy  matter 


THE  LEGAL   RELIGION  191 

for  the  Babylonian  Jews,  who  were  not  op- 
pressed by  the  difficulty  of  the  circumstances 
at  Jerusalem,  to  draw  up  regulations  for  the 
new  community  that  was  to  arise  at  Jerusalem 
and  in  Judea ;  these  are  the  regulations  which 
we  find  in  the  priests'  code.  It  shows  us  within 
the  framework  of  a  historic  narrative  how  the 
various  ceremonial  prescriptions  (about  the 
Sabbath,  abstention  from  blood,  and  circum- 
cision) were  given  mankind  one  after  the  other, 
until  finally,  to  crown  all,  the  people  of  Israel 
received  the  institution  of  sacrifice  from  God 
at  the  hands  of  Moses.  The  point  of  view 
represented  by  the  priests'  code  deserves  care- 
ful examination  under  its  various  aspects.  All 
that  can  be  noticed  here,  however,  is  that  it 
assumes  a  development  in  the  history  of 
religion  which  leads  us  from  the  simpler  to  the 
higher  and  more  important,  that  in  accordance 
with  the  stages  of  this  development  God  Him- 
self only  gradually  reveals  His  nature  to  men, 
naturally  most  completely  only  to  Moses  and 
Israel,  and  that  in  God's  great   plan   of  the 


192  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAINIENT 

universe  the  creation  formed  the  first  step  and 
the  Israehtic  cultus  the  goal — that  is  to  say, 
the  Almighty  Creator  of  the  world  directs  His 
will  according  to  His  favourite  among  the 
nations,  the  people  of  Israel.  We  notice  here 
the  syncretism  of  the  old  peasant  religion  with 
that  of  the  prophets,  a  syncretism  in  which, 
it  is  true,  the  deepest  thoughts  of  the  latter 
factor  are  entirely  disregarded  or  perverted 
into  their  opposite.  We  can  also  easily  under- 
stand how  when  once  this  law  was  introduced 
into  Jerusalem  it  became  the  pride  of  Judaism, 
because  Israel  was  assigned  a  proud  position 
of  privilege  amongst  all  the  peoples  of  the 
world,  not  merely  in  a  transitory  fashion  as  in 
Deutero-Isaiah,  but  definitely  and  permanently. 
In  the  period  during  which  the  law  was 
developed,  from  the  Deuteronomic  reform, 
621  B.C.,  up  to  the  introduction  of  the  priests' 
code  by  Nehemiah  and  Ezra  into  Jerusalem 
and  Judea,  about  444  B.C.,  the  Jews  came  into 
close  contact  first  with  the  religion  of  Babylon, 
from  the  time  of  the  first  captivity,  in  597  B.C., 


THE   LEGAL  RELIGION  193 

jind  then,  after  the  fall  of  Babel  in  the  year  538, 
with  that  of  the  Persians,  who  were  henceforth 
masters  of  the  near  East  and  gave  Nehemiah 
authority  for  his  work  at  Jerusalem.  The 
question  therefore  arises  whether  we  have  to 
assume  any  external  impulse  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  law,  and  whether  other  important 
material  from  either  the  Babylonian  or  the 
Persian  religion  can  be  traced  in  the  complex 
structure  of  the  Jewish  religion  ?  As  the 
beginning  of  the  legal  tendency  which  we  have 
in  Deuteronomy  falls  in  a  time  when  as  yet 
there  was  no  direct  contact  with  Babylon  and 
Persia,  chronology  alone  would  prevent  our 
seeking  for  the  impulse  to  this  movement 
outside  of  Israel.  It  would,  in  fact,  have  been 
strange  if  the  Jews  had  in  any  case  suffered 
their  hated  enemies  to  dictate  their  religion  to 
them.  Nor  would  it  be  easy  to  understand 
how  the  Babylonian  of  all  people  could  have 
recommended  such  a  legal  religion,  seeing  that 
they  themselves  rather  occupied  the  standpoint 

of  the   old   Canaanite   pre-Israelitic   religion. 

V6 


194,  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

And  by  tlie  time  that  the  Persians  came  into 
contact  with  the  Jews,  the  direction  which 
the  development  of  the  rehgion  of  Israel  was 
to  take  had  already  been  determined  by  the 
activity  of  Ezekiel.  In  all  essential  points, 
therefore,  the  Israelite  religion,  as  it  developed 
after  the  date  of  Deuteronomy,  traversed  this 
period  unaffected  by  any  foreign  influence. 
Whatever  changes  came  from  without  were 
of  an  entirely  secondary  nature.  It  may  be 
assumed,  for  instance,  that  the  author  of  the 
priests'  code  now  became  better  acquainted 
with  the  Babylonian  tradition  of  the  creation 
and  the  ten  antedilu\'ian  patriarchs  which 
had  travelled  to  Palestine  at  an  earlier  date, 
and  that  this  was  part  of  the  material  of  which 
he  disposed  when  he  drew  up  his  picture  of 
the  creation  in  Gen.  i.  and  his  list  of  the  ten 
patriarchs  in  Gen.  v.  So  in  the  later  theology 
of  the  legal  religion  isolated  features  may  be 
ascribed  to  Persian  models ;  we  may  perhaps 
mention  as  an  instance  the  transformation  of 
Satan  in   the   angelology   into   Jahwe's   chief 


THE   LEGAL  RELIGION  195 

adversary.  But  there  can  be  no  doubt  that, 
taking  it  as  a  whole,  the  legal  religion  is  the 
product  of  a  process  of  development  entirely 
confined  to  Israel  itself. 

As  we  compare  the  "  legal "  with  the  peasant 
religion,  the  advance  represented  by  the  former 
is  unmistakable.  Much  that  belonged  to  the 
faith  and  to  the  demands  of  the  prophets  has 
simply  been  taken  over  and  acknowledged. 

In  the  first  place  it  is  noteworthy  that  the 
conception  of  Jahwe  is  an  entirely  different 
one.  The  peasant  religion  saw  in  Jahwe 
simply  the  God  of  Palestine  and  its  people, 
and  hoped  that  He  would  always  prove 
superior  in  power  to  the  gods  of  the  other 
nations.  The  legal  religion  knows  Him,  as  do 
the  prophets,  to  be  the  one  God,  transcendent 
above  all  phenomena,  and  omnipotent.  The 
fact  that  the  nations  worship  other  gods  is 
satisfactorily  explained  by  the  supposition  that 
Jahwe  has  Himself  assigned  the  heavenly 
bodies  to  them  as  objects  of  worship.^     This 

1  Deut.  iv.  19. 


196  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

hypothesis  possessed  the  twofold  advantage 
of  preserving  God's  unity  and  omnipotence, 
and  at  the  same  time  of  exposing  the  im- 
potence and  nothingness  of  the  Gentile  gods. 
It  is  impossible  to  represent  the  transcendent 
gods  by  images,^  the  pictures  of  wood  and  of 
stone,  of  silver  and  of  gold,  mere  shapeless 
blocks  and  abominations.^  The  one  God 
guides  the  whole  history  of  the  world  from 
the  beginning.  He  created  the  world  as 
the  first  step  towards  the  accomplishment  of 
His  design.  He  revealed  Himself  in  a  historical 
succession  (as  Elohim,  El  Shaddai,  Jahwe), 
He  elected  Israel  as  His  own  people  from 
amongst  all  others,  and  appointed  Palestine 
for  its  everlasting  possession — thus  the  priests' 
code. 

In  the  next  place  it  is  to  be  noticed  that 
the  ethical  demands  of  the  prophets  are 
accepted.  All  the  immorality  that  had  found 
a  harbour  in  the  sacred  places  in  Palestine 
was    repudiated ;    above    all,   the    institution 

1  Deut.  iv.  15-18.  ^  Deut.  xxix.  17. 


THE   LEGAL   RELIGION  197 

of  the  male  hierodouloi  was  stamped  out/ 
Nay,  more,  in  order  to  keep  careful  watch 
over  the  cultus  and  to  guard  it  jealously 
against  intermixture  with  foreign  heathen  cus- 
toms, all  the  sacred  places  in  the  land  were 
swept  away,  and  the  temple  alone  was  pre- 
served as  a  place  of  worship  :  Zion  was  the 
only  place  chosen  by  Jahwe.  Soon  it  began 
to  be  forgotten  that  the  holy  places  in  the 
land  had  once  been  consecrated  to  the  worship 
of  Jahwe,  just  as  Zion,  which  was  now  alone 
privileged.  They  were  regarded  as  heathen 
heights.  The  kings  who  did  not  do  away 
with  the  worship  on  the  high  places  were  con- 
demned as  wicked,  and  the  unification  of  the 
cultus  was  projected  back  into  the  period  of 
the  journeyings  in  the  wilderness,  when  the 
"  tent  of  meeting,"  the  Tabernacle,  was  repre- 
sented as  being  already  the  one  legitimate 
sanctuary.  The  book  of  Deuteronomy  still 
wished  to  authorize  the  priests  who  had 
officiated   at    the   sacred    places   in   the    land 

^  Deut.  xxiii.  18  seq,     Cp.   2  Kings  xxiii.  7. 


198   RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

to  continue  their  functions  at  the  temple  in 
Jerusalem  ^ ;  but  the  town  priests  would  not 
allow  the  country  priests  to  be  placed  on  a 
footing  of  equality  with  themselves,"  and  we 
find  Ezekiel  already  declaring  their  degrada- 
tion to  be  the  servants  of  the  priests  at  Jeru- 
salem as  a  punishment  for  having  served  the 
people  at  their  sacrifices  on  the  high  places  out- 
side of  Jerusalem.^  When  we  come  to  the 
priests'  code  the  distinction  between  priests 
and  Levites  is  described  as  having  been  intro- 
duced as  early  as  the  time  of  JNIoses/ 

A  further  evidence  of  the  increased  import- 
ance attached  to  the  ethical  side  of  religion 
may  be  found  in  the  fact  that  it  is  not  only 
ceremonial  requirements  that  are  incorporated 
in  the  law.  In  Deuteronomy  we  have  the 
Decalogue,^  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  in 
the  version  of  Exodus  xx.  it  belongs  to  the 
original  setting  of  the  priests'  code.     In  other 

^  Deut.  xviii.  6-8.  ^  2  Kings  xxiii.  9' 

3  Ezek.  xliv.  (i-14.  *  Num.  iii.  6-10,  xviii.  1-7. 

^  Deut.  V. 


THE   LEGAL  RELIGION  199 

points,  too,  the  Deuteronomic  law  repeatedly 
urges  the  duty  of  fulfilling  not  only  cere- 
monial regulations,  but  God's  commandments, 
and  simply  repeats  many  ordinances  from  the 
old  law,  the  so-called  Book  of  the  Covenant. 
The  two  component  parts,  cultus  and  ethics, 
are  also  represented  in  the  law  of  holiness, 
and  the  priests'  code  proves  its  higher  ethical 
standpoint  by  omitting  all  the  immoral  stories 
about  the  patriarchs  in  its  version,  or,  where  it 
cannot  omit  them  altogether,  by  toning  them 
down  till  they  are  quite  unexceptionable.  A 
very  good  instance  of  the  way  in  which  the 
priests'  code  managed  to  eliminate  everything 
that  was  objectionable  in  the  old  traditions  of 
the  J  ah  wist  and  Elohist — both  of  which  it  knew 
— is  to  be  found  in  the  explanation  of  Jacob's 
journey  to  Mesopotamia.  According  to  the 
old  narration  Jacob  escapes  to  his  relations  in 
Haran  because  it  was  impossible  for  him  to 
stay  any  longer  in  his  father's  house  in  conse- 
quence of  the  deceit  which  he  had  practised 
upon  his  father  and  brother,  and  he  was  ex- 


200  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

posed  to  his  brother's  revenge  ^ ;  but  the  priests' 
code  makes  Jacob  go  to  INIesopotamia,  in  com- 
phance  with  his  father's  advice,  as  a  good  and 
pious  son,  to  choose  a  wife  from  among  his  re- 
lations there,  and  not  from  the  daughters  of 
Canaan,  as  his  wicked  brotlier  had  done,  to  his 
parents'  great  grief.^  The  ethical  conscience 
has  become  more  sensitive :  in  the  pictures 
of  the  patriarchs,  who  were  looked  upon  as 
patterns  of  piety,  such  stains  as  deceit  of 
father  or  brother  cannot  be  allowed  to  remain. 
But  with  all  this  progress,  as  compared  with 
the  peasant  religion,  the  cultus  (and  other 
ceremonial  institutions)  still  remains  the  centre 
round  which  everything  else  revolves.  An 
important  change  has,  it  is  true,  taken  place  in 
the  character  of  the  cultus.  It  has  come  to 
be  a  law,  it  used  to  be  simply  a  sacred 
custom ;  it  is  statutory  now,  it  was  joyfully 
spontaneous  before ;  it  is  now  exactly  dated 
according  to  the  calendar,  whereas  before  it 
was  regulated  according  to  the  work  of  the 
1  Gen.  xxvii.  1-45.  ^  Gen.  xxvii.  46-xxviii.  9- 


THE   LEGAL   RELIGION  201 

peasants  and  the  prospects  of  harvest  during 
the  year.  Now  the  ceremonial  is  prescribed 
by  the  minute  regulations  of  the  law,  formerly 
there  were  sacred  traditional  rites  of  a  hoary 
antiquity ;  now  the  cultus  is  the  expression  of 
man's  obedience  to  God's  commands,  formerly 
it  was  a  thanksgiving  for  blessings  received ; 
now  the  most  important  element  connected 
with  the  cultus  is  the  reward  expected  from 
God  for  its  due  fulfilment — that  is  to  say,  a 
future  salvation ;  formerly  the  predominant 
feature  was  a  glad  gratitude,  the  result  of  the 
blessing  God  had  bestowed,  though  it  is  true 
a  confident  hope  was  mingled  with  this  feeling, 
that  the  Giver  of  the  good  gifts  of  the  land 
would  prove  as  bountiful  in  the  future  towards 
those  that  worshipped  Him  as  He  had  been  in 
the  past ;  now  the  prevailing  mood  among  the 
participators  in  these  festivals  is  gloomy  and 
serious,  formerly  the  sacrifices  were  occasions 
for  rejoicing  before  Jahwe.  Even  Deuter- 
onomy gives  that  impression.  We  can  well 
understand  that  with  such  ideas  the  practice 


202   RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

of  the  cultus  was  looked  upon  as  a  burden ; 
formerly  this  would  have  been  incredible.^ 

The  centralization  of  the  whole  cultus  in  the 
capital  by  means  of  the  Deuteronomic  reform 
contributed  a  great  deal  to  bring  about  this 
change.  The  natural  connection  of  the  cultus 
with  agriculture  was  severed  at  one  blow. 
The  harvest  did  not  begin  and  end  throughout 
the  whole  country  at  the  same  time ;  it  was 
a  far  journey  to  Jerusalem,  and  the  bringing 
of  the  sacrificial  gifts  in  kind  to  the  distant 
capital  occasioned  great  difhculties.  Arrange- 
ments had  to  be  made:  to  prevent  great 
disorder  the  three  principal  festivals  of  the 
peasants  had  to  be  exactly  dated  by  the 
calendar ;  further,  permission  had  to  be  given 
them  to  sell  their  sacrifices  in  their  native 
place,  and  then  with  the  money  to  buy  fresh 
animals  and  gifts  for  sacrifice  at  Jerusalem. 
All  these  innovations  were  the  natural  conse- 
quences of  the  transference  of  the  cultus  to 
the  capital.     Deuteronomy  already  allows  the 

1  Mai.  i.  13. 


THE   LEGAL  RELIGION  203 

exchange  of  the  gifts  m  kind  into  money,^  and 
begins  to  fix  the  dates  of  the  festivals.^  Soon 
these  festivals  were  exactly  dated  according  to 
the  calendar  —  the  Passover  and  Mazzoth 
festivals  on  certain  days  of  the  first  month 
(the  month  Nisan) ;  the  Feast  of  Pentecost,  or 
Weeks,  seven  weeks  later ;  and  the  Feast  of 
Tabernacles  on  the  fifteenth  of  the  seventh 
month — the  month  Tisri.^ 

As  the  connection  of  these  festivals  with 
country  life  was  gradually  forgotten,  the  agri- 
cultural feasts  were  transformed  into  memo- 
rials of  historical  occurrences.  The  Passover, 
which  had  originally  an  entirely  different 
signification,*  and  the  Feast  of  Mazzoth,  the 
religious  celebration  of  the  beginning  of 
harvest,^  became  the  historical  anniversaries 
of  the  Exodus.^  Later,  the  Feast  of  Weeks 
was  interpreted  as  the  memorial  celebration 
of  the  giving  of  the  law  on  Mount  Sinai — so 

1  Deut.  xiv,  22-27.  2  Deut.  xvi.  9. 

3  Lev.  xxiii. ;  Num.  xxviii.  and  xxix. 
*  Cp.  supra,  pp.  55,  56.  ^  See  p.  101. 

^  Ex.  xii. 


204   RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

we  learn  from  sources  outside  of  the  O.T. — 
while  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  which  had 
likewise  been  at  first  simply  a  harvest  festival/ 
was  brought  into  connection  with  the  dwell- 
ing in  booths  during  the  journeyings  in  the 
wilderness.^ 

As  the  cultus  was  no  longer  the  spon- 
taneous expression  of  the  old  country  life,  a 
minute  regulation  of  rites  and  ceremonies 
became  necessary :  the  sacrifices  had  to  be 
exactly  defined  and  clearly  distinguished 
according  to  their  meaning  and  object.  The 
first  steps  to  meet  this  need  were  taken  by 
Ezekiel,^  and  the  Law  of  Holiness  en- 
deavoured to  compile  a  faithful  record  of  the 
old  ceremonial  in  order  that  the  cultus  might 
be  duly  performed  in  exact  accordance  with 
the  ancient  rites  at  the  restoration  of  the 
temple.  But  the  most  minute  and  detailed 
account  of  this  matter  is  to  be  found,  as  one 
would  expect,  in  the  priests'  code,  which  fills 

^  Cp.  supra,  p.  101  scq.  ^  Lev.  xxiii.  42  seq. 

8  Ezek.  xlv.  13-xlvi.  15. 


THE   LEGAL   RELIGIOxN  205 

the  central  portion  of  the  Pentateuch  with 
very  exact  prescriptions  concerning  the  differ- 
ent kinds  of  sacrifice — annual  sacrifices  and 
the  meat  offering,  burnt  offering,  sin  offering, 
and  guilt  offering — as  well  as  with  regulations 
concerning  the  rites  to  be  observed  and  the 
number  of  the  victims  or  quantity  of  the 
offering. 

It  is  natural,  too,  that  where  everything 
depended  on  the  cultus  and  the  due  per- 
formance of  the  whole  complicated  system  of 
sacrifice,  a  yearly  festival  should  be  added,  the 
object  of  which  was  to  atone  for  the  people 
and  all  the  priests,  and  to  cleanse  the  temple 
from  any  defilement  it  might  have  contracted 
through  the  fault  of  the  ministering  officials. 
The  Day  of  Atonement,^  the  keystone  of  the 
whole  intricate  building  of  the  sacrificial  cultus, 
was  intended  to  secure  the  effectiveness  of 
this  cultus,  and  thus  concentrate  the  whole 
tendency  of  the  ceremonial  legislation.  It 
did  not  occasion  the   originators  of  the  Day 

^  Lev.  xvi. 


206  llELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

of  Atonement  any  difficulty  that  features 
should  occur  in  the  ceremonial  of  this  festival 
which  pointed  back  to  old  Semitic  customs, 
and  were  possibly  even  borrowed  from  the 
Babylonians.  As  an  instance  we  may  mention 
the  goat  over  which  the  sins  of  the  people 
were  confessed,  and  which  was  then  led  away 
into  the  wilderness  for  Azazel.^ 

A  cultus  thus  highly  developed  imphed  a 
special  official  class.  In  old  times  every  father 
of  a  femily  had  a  right  to  sacrifice,  and  if 
sacrifices  were  ofFered  in  common,  young  men 
were  sometimes  appointed  for  the  purpose.^ 
Priests  already  officiated  at  the  more  im- 
portant sanctuaries  in  the  land,  who  performed 
certain  rites  in  addition  to  declaring  Jahwe's 
will ;  and  probably,  as  a  rule,  their  office  was 
hereditary.  These  were  the  "  Levites  "  ;  there 
was  no  fixed  order  of  priests,  the  members  of 
which,  officiating  at  various  sanctuaries,  regarded 
each   other  as  related    by   descent.     All   this 

^  Cp.  Lev.  xvi.  for  the  ritual  of  the  Day  of  Atonement. 
2  Ex.  xxiv.  5. 


THE   LEGAL   RELIGION  207 

would  liave  to  be  changed.  At  the  royal 
sanctuary  ministrants  had  been  appomted  from 
very  early  times  to  perform  the  cultus  in  the 
name  and  in  the  authority  of  the  king.  From 
Solomon's  time  onwards  we  find  the  Zadokites 
in  this  position — that  is,  the  men  of  the  family 
of  Zadok — Solomon's  contemporary  ^ — and  his 
successors  in  office.  At  the  time  of  which 
we  are  speaking  they  alone  were  recognized 
as  legitimate  priests  ^ ;  the  "  priests "  of  the 
high  places  were  degraded  and  became  their 
servants.  Here  we  have  the  origin  of  a 
clergy — a  higher,  the  priests,  and  a  lower,  the 
Levites ;  and  soon  as  the  chief  of  this  clergy, 
and  then  as  the  head  of  the  community,  we 
see  the  high  priest  above  the  priests  them- 
selves.^ The  priests  count  as  the  descendants 
of  Aaron ;  JNIoses  himself  is  said  to  have 
conferred  the  priesthood  upon  them.*  Their 
servants  are  to  be  called  T^evites,  as  descend- 

1  1  Kings  ii.  27,  35 ;  Ezek.  xliv.  15. 

2  Fide  supra,  p.  198. 

8  Lev.  xxi.  10;  Zech.  iii.  8. 

*  Ex.  xxviii.  1-41,  xxix.  1-44;  Num.  iii.  10. 


208  RELIGIOxV   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

ants  of  the  tribe  of  Levi,  to  which  Aaron  also 
belonged/  To  the  gradations  of  this  priestly 
body,  now  conceived  as  an  old  priestly  tribe, 
corresponds  the  division  of  functions  which 
are  minutely  regulated  and  graded  by  the 
law.^  The  Levites'  work  is  confined  to  the 
outer  court,  but  even  there  they  are  forbidden 
to  perform  the  functions  of  the  priests.  They 
are  not  allowed  to  enter  into  the  holy  place, 
and  the  high  priest  alone  has  access  to  the 
Holy  of  Holies. 

By  the  side  of  the  sacrificial  cultus  two  other 
ceremonies  acquired  an  altogether  exceptional 
importance — the  Sabbath  and  circumcision. 
Both  had  been  rejected  by  the  prophets  ;  they 
had  discarded  the  Sabbath  as  well  as  the 
festival  of  the  new  moon,  and  instead  of  the 
circumcision  of  the  flesh  Jeremiah  demanded 
a  circumcision  of  the  heart.^  In  the  lesal 
religion  both  are  the  indispensable  signs  of  a 

1  Num.  iii.  6  seq.,  viii.  l6  scq.,  xviii.  2,  6. 

2  Num.  i.,  xviii. 

^  Fide  supra,  p.  14  seq. 


THE   LEGAL   RELIGION  209 

true  Israelite.  Ezekiel  is  the  first  to  attribute 
an  altogether  exceptional  importance  to  the 
Sabbath,  and  that  not  to  the  Sabbath  in  the 
old  sense  of  the  day  of  the  full  moon,  but  in 
the  sense  of  the  seventh  day  of  the  week,  a 
day  of  rest/  The  Sabbath  is  regarded  by 
Ezekiel  as  the  sign  of  the  covenant  between 
Jahwe  and  the  Israelites,  and  the  failure  of 
former  generations  to  sanctify  the  Sabbath  is 
looked  upon  as  a  great  sin.^  It  is  quite  pos- 
sible that  Meinhold  is  right  when  he  says  ^  that 
Ezekiel,  "  the  organizer  of  the  Jewish  congre- 
gation," was  the  first  to  substitute  the  weekly 
Sabbath  for  the  full-moon  Sabbath,  and  that 
just  as  he  reproached  previous  generations 
with  idolatry  on  the  high  places,  so  he  is 
equally  justified  in  reproaching  them  with  the 
desecration  of  the  Sabbath — equally  justified, 
for  the  men  of  that  time  did  not  know  that  the 
worship  on  the  high  places,  which  they  offered 

1  Ezck.  xlvi.  1. 

2  Ezek.  XX.  12,  13,  \6,  20,  24,  xxii.  8,  26,  xxiii.  38. 
'  Cp.  op.  cit.,  p.  15  sea. 

14 


210  RELIGION    OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

in  honour  of  .fahwe,  would  be  counted  as 
idolatry  by  a  later  age ;  and  of  Ezekiel's  Sabbath 
they  had  as  yet  no  conception.  It  is  well 
known  what  importance  was  attached  to  the 
Sabbath  from  Ezekiel's  day  onwards,  and  how 
jealously  its  ascetic  character  was  guarded  by 
all  manner  of  rigorous  regulations  from  every 
kind  of  profanation.  Our  next  witnesses  in 
chronological  order  are  Trito-Isaiah,  who  speaks 
of  the  Sabbath  as  the  most  important  sign  of 
adhesion  to  the  community  of  Israel  on  the 
part  of  the  stranger  and  the  eunuch,^  and  the 
priests'  code,  which  throws  back  its  institution 
to  the  end  of  the  week  of  creation,  and  derives 
the  obligation  of  the  Sabbatical  rest  from  God's 
own  rest  on  the  seventh  day,-  while  it  never 
wearies  in  its  constantly  iterated  demands  to 
observe  the  Sabbath.  The  possibility  of 
observing  the  Sabbath  during  the  exile  away 
from  Jerusalem  may  in  part  account  for  the 
emphasis  which  came  to  be  attached  as  the 
distinctive  feature  of  the  pious  Israelite.  And 
1  Isa.  Ivi.  1-8.  2  Gen.  ii.  l-4a. 


THE   LEGAL  RELIGION  211 

the  same  reason  may  to  a  certain  extent  be 
regarded  as  the  cause  of  the  demand  for 
circumcision  as  the  sign  of  adhesion  to  the 
community.  During  the  exile  it  was  quite 
possible  to  look  upon  circumcision  in  this  light, 
for  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  were  un- 
circumcised.  Whoever  belongs  to  the  com- 
munity and  wishes  to  take  part  in  the  religious 
festivals,  either  slave  or  stranger,  must  be  cir- 
cumcised ;  whoever  fails  to  comply  with  this 
requirement  commits  a  mortal  sin.  Just  as 
the  priests'  code  throws  back  the  Sabbath 
to  the  creation,  so  it  refers  the  institution  of 
circumcision  to  the  age  of  Abraham.  It  was, 
therefore,  a  very  venerable  institution,  and  as 
it  was  originally  imposed  before  the  cultus  had 
been  organized,  so  it  could  serve  as  the  sign  of 
the  covenant  wherever  an  Israelite  was  com- 
pelled to  live  in  a  strange  land  where  there 
was  no  cultus.^ 

The  importance  which  was  attached  to  these 
external  marks  of  membership  in  the  congrega- 
*  Gen.  xvii. ;  Ex.  xii.  4>4>,  48. 


212  RELIGION    OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

tion  of  Jahwe,  and  of  distinction  from  other 
peoples,  was  a  consequence  of  the  position 
assigned  by  the  legal  religion  to  the  Israelites 
amongst  other  nations  and  of  their  relation  to 
Jahwe.  Here,  again,  we  have  a  reversion  to 
the  previous  stage  of  religious  development. 
Jahwe  and  Israel  remain  indissolubly  united. 
Even  though  Jahwe  is  no  longer  what  the 
peasant  religion  wanted  Him  to  be,  even 
though  He  has  ceased  to  be  exclusively  the 
I^ord  of  Israel,  and  has  become  the  Lord  of 
the  whole  world,  yet  He  has  chosen  Israel  as 
His  peculiar  people  and  restricted  salvation  to 
the  Jews.  Jahwe  is  the  Lord  of  the  whole 
world,  but  His  salvation  is  confined  to  the 
Jews.  Such  is  the  confession  of  the  legal  re- 
ligion, which  combines  the  widest  universalism, 
faith  in  the  omnipotent  God,  the  Creator  of 
the  universe,  with  the  narrowest  particularism. 
The  Gentiles  were  not  regarded  as  possessing 
the  same  privileges  as  the  Jews,  nor  could  they 
ever  attain  to  the  same  position  towards  God. 
The  thought  that  Gentiles  could   ever   serve 


THE   LEGAL   RELIGION  213 

Jahwe  in  their  own  countries,  that  pure 
oblations  could  be  offered  to  Jahwe  even  at 
the  altars  of  the  Gentiles/  was  beyond  the 
comprehension  of  the  pious  Jewish  observer  of 
the  law.  When  we  meet  with  it,  it  is  just  a 
sporadic  after-effect  of  the  prophetic  religion. 
Whoever  wishes  to  share  in  the  offer  of 
salvation  must  become  a  proselyte,  a  member 
of  the  Jewish  congregation.  In  reality  the 
Gentiles  only  exist  for  two  objects  :  first,  that 
the  Lord  of  the  whole  earth  may  show  His 
power  upon  them  as  He  did  upon  the  Egyp- 
tians, and,  on  the  other  hand,  that  they  may 
fill  the  temple  with  their  riches  and  perform 
menial  services  for  the  Jews  in  their  cattle- 
raising  and  tillage.^  Here,  again,  Ezekiel  is  a 
typical  exponent  of  the  thoughts  of  the  legal 
religion.  One  can  fully  realize  the  difference 
between  his  ideas  and  the  genuine  prophetic 
conception  when  one  compares  his  picture  of 
the  future  with  that  of  Deutero-lsaiah.     The 

1  Mill.  i.  11. 

2  Hag.  ii.  7 ;  Isa.  Ix.  5  seq.,  Ixi.  5-7. 


214   RELIGION   OF   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 

latter,  as  we  have  already  seen,^  shows  us  that 
the  end  and  object  of  God's  education  of  the 
human  race  is  that  all  nations  without  excep- 
tion shall  share  in  the  divine  salvation,  and 
that  true  religion  with  the  blessing  which  it 
brinors  shall  extend  to  the  ends  of  the  world. 
But  in  Ezekiel  salvation  is  confined  to  the  law 
and  the  cultus,  and  these,  again,  are  restricted 
to  the  holy  place  at  Jerusalem ;  the  Gentiles 
whose  idolatry  is  surely  a  great  deal  worse 
than  that  of  the  Israelites  in  old  times  on  the 
heights  outside  of  Jerusalem  deserve  nothing 
better  than  God's  judgments,  nor  shall  they 
escape  them  :  salvation  remains  restricted  to 
Palestine  and  its  inhabitants.  Such  is 
Ezekiel's  particularism.^  In  the  legal  religion, 
therefore,  we  have  the  only  true  source  of 
those  eschatological  descriptions  of  the  wonder- 
ful fertility  which  is  to  characterize  Palestine. 
Here,  too,  is  the  source  of  those  prophecies  of  a 
similar  character  which  have  unjustifiably  been 

1  Cp.  supra,  p.  175  seq. 

2  Ez.  xxv.-xxxii.,  xxxviii.,  xxxix. 


THE   LEGAL  RELIGION  215 

inserted  in  the  writings  of  the  old  pre-exilic 
prophets  ^ ;  and  it  is  only  in  the  atmosphere  of 
this  stage  of  the  rehgious  development  that 
the  expectations  of  a  new  national  existence  in 
Palestine  with  a  righteous  prince  at  the  head 
of  the  state  become  intelligible,  so  that  the 
real  Messianic  prophecies  are  to  be  declared  as 
products  of  the  legal  stage  of  the  religion. 

The  legal  religion  took  a  great  deal  over 
from  the  prophetic  religion — the  conception 
of  God  and  the  ethical  demands ;  but,  for  all 
that,  compared  with  the  prophetic  religion  it 
implies  a  distinct  retrogression,  for  in  all 
decisive  points  it  reverted  to  the  stage  of 
development  reached  by  the  peasant  religion. 
Thus  it  took  over  into  Judaism  the  whole 
system  connected  with  the  cultus,  which  was 
of  heathen  origin,  and  granted  it  the  recog- 
nition which  the  prophets  had  consistently 
refused ;  further,  it  never  abandoned  the 
belief  in   the  permanent  and   definitely  fixed 

^  E.g.  Amos  ix.  13-15  ;  Hos.  ii.  23-25  ;  Isa.  iv.  2-6,  xxx. 
18-26,  xxxii.  15-20;  Micali  iv.  4.      Cp.  also  supra,  p.  179- 


216  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

prerogatives     which     the     people     of     Israel 
possessed  above  all  others,  and    thus   riveted 
anew  the  error  which  the  prophets  had  com- 
bated —  the    mistaken    idea     that     salvation 
belonged   to   the   Jews   alone,  and   that  they 
were  and  would  remain  the  chosen  favourites 
of  God.     The  most  fatal,  the  most  far-reaching 
distinction  between  the  legal  and  the  prophetic 
religion    is,    however,    this:     the    former     is 
opposed   to  the  latter  in  its   inmost  essence  ; 
it   sets   aside   and   destroys   the    deep    under- 
standing   of    religiosity    which    characterized 
the   prophets.     The   most  distinctive  feature, 
the    chiefest     excellence     of    the     prophetic 
religion    is    the     close     connection     between 
religion  and  ethics,  between  the  consciousness 
of    the   divine    power    and     the    impulse    to 
righteousness,    or,    in    other    words,   the    im- 
mediateness   of    religion,    so   that   man   is   in 
direct    relation    to    God   without    any   inter- 
mediary.     That    was    the     divine     presence 
which   formed    the   prophets'    happiness    and 
their  strength  in  all  the  storm  and  stress   of 


THE   LEGAL   RELIGION  217 

life ;  this  it  was  that  each  individual  human 
soul  was  to  feel,  so  that,  like  the  prophets,  it 
might  count  nothing  higher  than  the  accom- 
plishment of  the  divine  will.  But  in  the 
legal  religion  piety  has  altogether  changed 
its  nature ;  the  immediate  relation  to  God 
has  gone.  Between  God  and  man  the  law 
has  intervened.  Now  the  intention  of  the 
law  was  excellent — it  was  to  codify  the  divine 
will ;  but  it  was  not  realized,  that  wherever 
anything  living  is  forced  into  a  cast-iron  frame, 
there  all  healthy  circulation  is  checked  and 
death  is  certain.  But  this  is  what  happened : 
the  law  severed  the  close  connection  between 
God  and  man,  it  inserted  itself  as  a  wall  of 
partition,  it  hid  God  from  man,  and  caused 
all  living  religion  to  languish  ;  for  piety  now 
came  to  be  obedience  to  the  law  and  to  fixed 
rules,  and  this  obedience  soon  became  at  once 
technical  and  intellectual,  for  the  law  had  to 
be  learned,  and  the  main  stream  divided  into 
an  infinite  number  of  single  pious  acts  and 
practices,  which  had  to  be  performed  at  fixed 


218  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

times  and  fixed  places,  and  under  definitely 
regulated  circumstances.  The  prophets  had 
said :  the  court  of  appeal  for  the  righteous 
man  is  in  his  own  heart ;  the  legal  religion 
made  of  this  court  an  altogether  external 
body.  Nor  did  it  mend  matters  much  that 
the  law  counted  as  God's  law.  Obedience  to 
the  best  of  laws  as  such  is  legalism  first  and 
last ;  under  no  conceivable  circumstances  does 
it  attain  to  the  freedom  and  power  of  personal 
religion  when  a  man's  heart  has  been  touched 
by  God  Himself. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  consequences  of 
this  changed  conception  of  the  nature  of 
religion  came  to  be  felt.  The  first  thing 
that  strikes  us  is  the  equal  value  set  upon 
ceremonial  and  ethical  actions.  The  law  sets 
up  the  standard  of  right  action  in  both  domains, 
and,  if  piety  is  obedience  to  the  law,  legalism, 
then  every  difference  in  the  value  of  the 
two  kinds  of  action  disappears.  It  is  just 
as  important  for  a  man  to  be  careful  not 
to  transgress   the  regulations  which  limit  the 


THE   LEGAL   RELIGION  219 

length  of  a  Sabbath  day's  journey  as  it  is  for 
him  to  guard  against  every  kind  of  untruth- 
fuhiess.  When  external  ordinances  are  thus 
set  on  the  same  level  as  ethical  actions,  the 
inevitable  result  is  that  ritual  is  magnified  at 
the  expense  of  morality,  for  firstly,  the  essen- 
tial freedom  of  morality  is  affected  by  such 
minute  regulations :  it  is  deposed  from  the 
domain  of  liberty  into  that  of  compulsion  ; 
and,  secondly,  if  you  can  bring  a  sure  proof 
of  your  piety  by  the  careful  performance  of 
external  religious  duties,  then  less  importance 
will  easily  come  to  be  attached  to  social 
integrity.  The  conscientious  observer  of  the 
law  is,  in  reality,  led  not  by  his  conscience 
but  by  his  knowledge  of  the  chapters  of  the 
law,  and  the  result  is  a  gradual  atrophy  of 
his  conscience.  In  this  equalization  of  ritual 
ordinances  and  true  righteousness  we  have 
the  germ  of  the  later  developments  of  the  law 
by  the  scribes  and  the  endless  excrescences 
of  the  Mishna  and  the  Talmud. 

A  further  consequence  of  the  legal  religion 


220  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

was  that  God  was  removed  much  further  from 
His  people,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  tenacity 
with  which  it  chmg  to  the  behef  that  Israel 
was  God's  favourite  people,  and  that  Israel 
and  Jahwe  belong  to  each  other  for  ever. 
For  the  law,  as  we  have  seen,  is  interposed 
between  them,  and  Jahwe,  the  God  of  the 
whole  world,  becomes  an  altogether  tran- 
scendent Deity.  The  close  personal  relations 
between  God  and  the  prophets,  not  to  speak 
of  the  intimate  and  familiar  converse  with 
God  on  the  old  "  high  places,"  are  things  of 
the  past.  Such  an  awe  attaches  to  the  divine 
name,  Jahwe,  that  it  is  unutterable.  God's 
revelation  in  the  law  is  final,  and  in  the 
cultus  a  carefully  graded  hierarchy  intervenes 
between  the  layman  and  God.  That  is  the 
reason  why  theophanies  became  ever  rarer ; 
and,  when  those  of  the  past  are  related,  use 
is  always  made  of  the  simplest  terms.  God 
is  merely  said  to  "  speak,"  and  all  other  details 
are  suppressed.^      The   visions   of    which    we 

^  So  in  the  priests'  code. 


THE   LEGAL   RELIGION  221 

still  hear  in   this   period    are  just   a   literary 
device,    and   soon   God    Himself   recedes    al- 
together and   gives   place  to  His  messengers 
and   angels.^     This   further  development,  the 
assumption  of  the  existence  of  intermediaries, 
was   inevitable.     The  law  and  the  cultus  did 
not   fully   satisfy  man's  wants ;   the   distance 
between  God  and  the  world  had  to  be  bridged 
over  somehow,  and  converse  between  Creator 
and  creature  had  to  be  rendered  possible.    The 
belief  in  heavenly  beings,  in  sons  of  the  gods, 
was,  of  course,  nothing   new,^  and    God,  the 
high  and  lofty  one,  could  have  as  many  sub- 
ordinate   ministers    as    the    Babylonian    and 
Persian   kings.     The  further   development  of 
angelology  may  possibly   be   due   in   part   to 
external    influences,    and     certain    individual 
angels   may  have   their   counterparts   in    this 
or  the  other  foreign  religion.     But  the  whole 
conception  of  intermediary  beings  harmonizes 
so   exactly  with   the   peculiar   nature   of   the 
legal   religion   that   it   cannot  be  regarded  as 

^  Zech.  i.-viii.  and  Daniel.  ^  Gen.  vi.  1  seq. 


222  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

merely  borrowed.  Thus  "  the  angel  of  Jahwe  " 
appears  once  more  as  God's  especial  repre- 
sentative, playing  the  same  part  as  he  had 
before  in  the  old  popular  legends  :  and,  besides, 
we  have  a  whole  court  retinue,  in  which 
various  offices  are  represented.  There  are, 
amongst  others,  apparitors  and  an  accuser,^ 
who  comes  to  be  conceived  later  as  tempter 
to  sin,^  and  finally  as  the  cause  of  sin  in  the 
world  ^ ;  then  there  are  guardian  angels  of 
nations  and  individuals  with  personal  ap- 
pehations  ;  there  is,  e.g.,  JNIichael,  who  presides 
over  the  destinies  of  Israel,^  and  Raphael,  who 
w^atches  over  the  pious  Tobias.^  There  are 
angels  with  an  especial  office,  such  as  Gabriel, 
the  messenger  of  the  divine  revelation,^  and  also 
princes  of  the  angels,^  or  archangels,  as  some 
kind  of  hierarchy  is  necessitated  by  the  great 
number  of  these  beings.     An  intermediary  of 

1  Zech.  iii.     Job  prologue.  ^   1  Chron.  xxi.  1. 

8  Wisd.  ii.  23  seq.  *  Dan.  x.  13,  21,  xii.    1. 

^  Tob.  V.  4-xii.  15. 

6  Dan.  viii.  l6,  ix.  21  ;  Luke  i.  19,  26. 

7  Dan.  X.  13. 


THE    LEGAL   RELIGION  223 

a  peculiar  nature  is  the  divine  wisdom,  which 
was  originally  only  the  personification  of  a 
quality  of  God,  but  was  then  conceived  as  a 
separate  concrete  existence,  created  before  the 
rest  of  creation,  but  sharing  in  the  Creator's 
work.^  The  transformation  of  an  abstract 
conception  into  an  objective  entity  shows 
us  that  the  theoretical  element  played  a 
great  part  in  the  legal  religion.  Later  Jewish 
theology  developed  these  first  beginnings  of 
the  doctrine  of  angels  and  intermediary  beings 
with  an  especial  fondness.^ 

The  law  set  up  a  standard  for  right  action  ; 
it  is  natural,  therefore,  that  the  righteous  should 
receive  rewards  and  the  godless  punishment, 
that  not  only  should  the  idea  of  retribution 
gain  ground,  but  an  accurate  doctrine  of 
retribution  be  developed.  The  framers  of  the 
law,  however,  did  not  imagine  that  they  were 
doing  anything  else  than  providing  a  theoretical 
setting  for  the  truth  which  the  prophets  had 
uttered.     Had   not    the   prophets   proclaimed 

^   Prov.  viii.  22  seq.      ^  Cp.  especially  the  book  of  Enoch. 


224  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

Jahwe's    punishment    as    the   necessary   con- 
sequence of  the  people's  sin,  and  their   word 
had  been  proved   to  be  true  ?     And  besides, 
since  Jeremiah's  prophecy  the  individual  had 
ceased   to   be    regarded   as   merely   an   indis- 
tinguishable unit,  lost  in  the  mass  of  the  people 
and  irretrievably  involved  in  its  fortunes.     His 
intrinsic  importance  was  now  definitely  recog- 
nized in  religion.     Thus   the  doctrine   of  re- 
tribution was  applied  to  the  individual  as  well 
as  to  the  people  as  a  whole :  just  retribution 
prevails    everywhere :    you    may    infer    with 
absolute  certainty  that  sin  will  be  followed  by 
punishment,    and   that   righteousness   will   be 
rewarded  by  prosperity,  but  the  inference  from 
good    or    bad    fortune    to    past    or    present 
righteousness  or  sin  is  no  less  certain.     Nothing 
has  been  incorporated  more  entirely  into  the 
very  pith   and   marrow  of  the  Jewish  people 
than   this   doctrine  of  retribution.     Even  the 
most  contradictory  facts  in  actual  life  did  not 
shake  men's  faith  in  the  truth  of  this  theory ; 
they  had  recourse  to  the  most  desperate  ex- 


THE   LEGAL   RELIGION  225 

pedients  in  order  to  remove  stubborn  facts  out 
of  the  way,  merely  to  save  theory  at  the 
expense  of  reahty.  Thus  the  merited  reward 
or  punishment  is  reaped  not  by  the  man  him- 
self, but  by  his  children ;  or  we  may  think  of 
Job's  friends ;  or  the  disciples  of  Jesus  with 
their  question  when  they  saw  the  man  born 
blind  ^ ;  or,  again,  of  the  many  psalms  which 
lament  the  prosperity  of  the  godless  and  the 
afflictions  of  the  righteous.  It  was  in  accord- 
ance with  this  theory  that  the  history  of  the 
people  and  its  kings  was  written,  nor  did  the 
historian  shrink  from  adapting  the  history  to  fit 
the  theory.  Thus  the  Deuteronomists  establish 
a  regular  succession  in  the  time  of  the  Judges  : 
the  defection  of  the  people,  their  punishment 
by  subjection  to  some  foreign  people ;  the 
Israelites  turn  again  and  cry  for  help,  they  are 
saved  by  the  sending  of  a  deliverer  and  are 
prosperous  as  long  as  this  Judge  keeps  the 
people  true  to  Jahwe.  We  may  compare  again 
the  account  given  in  the  books  of  Chronicles 

^  John  ix.  2. 

15 


226  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

with  that  of  the  earher  books  of  Kings. 
Thus  in  Kings  we  read  that  Jehoshaphat^ 
the  king  of  Judah,  caused  a  fleet  to  be  built, 
and  decHned  the  participation  of  Ahaziah,  king 
of  Israel,  but  the  ships  got  no  further  than 
Ezion-Geber,and  then  they  were  wrecked,  while 
in  Chronicles  ^  the  destruction  of  the  ships  is 
declared  to  be  the  punishment  for  Jehosha- 
phat's  sin,  which  is  none  other  than  that  of 
hav^ing  taken  this  very  Ahaziah  for  his  ally ; 
or  again,  to  take  one  more  example,  read  the 
two  accounts  about  Manasseh,  king  of  Judah 
— the  earlier  one,^  where  nothing  but  evil  is 
related  of  his  reign  of  fifty-five  years,  and  the 
later,*  where  we  have  the  account  of  his  con- 
version and  zeal  for  Jahwe,  evidently  because 
so  long  a  reign  was  only  conceivable  as  a 
reward  for  piety. 

As  just  retribution  has  been  and  is  the 
supremest  law  in  the  past  and  present,  so 
it   will   always   be   in   the   future.     Jahwe  is 

1  1   Kings  xxii.  49  seq.  ^  2  Chron.  xx.  35-37. 

3  2  Kings  xxi.  1-18.  *  2  Chron.  xxxiii.  1-20. 


THE   LEGAL   RELIGION  227 

surety,  and  is  He  not  the  God  of  righteous- 
ness ?  The  only  object  which  the  Jewish 
people  has  in  view  with  its  obedient  fulfilment 
of  the  ceremonial  law  is  that  thereby  the 
advent  of  the  Messianic  salvation,  a  time  full 
of  happiness  and  of  glory,  will  be  hastened. 
Israel  deserved  the  punishment  of  the  exile 
because  it  did  not  serve  Jahwe  faithfully ; 
but  Israel  would  suffer  a  grievous  wrong  if  the 
heathen  did  not  meet  with  still  more  condign 
punishment,  for  they  did  not  serve  Jahwe  at 
all,  and  habitually  practised  the  abominations 
to  which  Israel  only  yielded  temporarily.  In 
order  to  rectify  matters,  therefore,  Israel  must 
be  restored  and  the  heathen  judged.  Ezekiel 
had  recognized  this  in  earlier  days,  and  now 
that  Jahwe  again  had  faithful  worshippers  at 
Jerusalem,  while  the  contrast  with  the  heathen 
still  persisted,  the  judgment  was  bound  to 
come,  when  the  godless  would  be  destroyed 
and  salvation  would  be  finally  established  for 
the  righteous.  The  day  of  judgment  is  a 
terrible   day   for   the   congregation   itself,  for 


228  RELIGION   OF  THE    OLD  TESTAMENT 

then  the  righteous  shall  be  separated  from  the 
godless  among  the  people ;  yet  the  victory  of 
Jahwe  is  sure.  The  power  of  the  world  will 
be  broken  by  Jahwe  before  Jerusalem  against 
which  the  enemy  advances,  the  judgment  of 
the  world  will  be  held,  and  the  day  of  unend- 
ing bliss  for  Jahwe's  faithful  followers  will 
then  begin.  It  is  easy  to  understand  how  at 
that  time  men's  minds  were  attracted  to  the 
future,  and  their  imagination  was  busied  there- 
with, for  the  present  afforded  no  great  scope  for 
either.  An  endless  variety  therefore  character- 
izes the  pictures  that  were  drawn  of  the  future, 
of  the  woes  which  were  to  precede  the  day  of 
judgment,  of  the  single  acts  of  the  great  final 
judgment  before  Jerusalem,  and  of  the  Messianic 
age  of  happiness  and  salvation.  JNIany  allusions 
to  the  events  of  the  last  days  and  descriptions 
of  the  last  judgment  were  now  read  into  the 
writings  of  the  old  prophets.  This  is  shown 
by  the  many  additions  made  in  order  to 
explain  or  complete  these  supposed  allusions, 
especially   additions    of  a    consolatory   tenor. 


THE   LEGAL  RELIGION  229 

wherein  the  promises  of  salvation  follow  the 
threats  of  judgment,  so  that  the  reverse  of  the 
picture  may  also  have  a  fair  chance  of  being 
seen.  Thus  little  by  little  an  extensive  eschat- 
ological  literature  came  to  be  formed,  amongst 
which  especial  mention  should  be  made  of  the 
apocalypses.^  This  is  not  the  place  to  attempt 
to  give  anything  like  a  full  reproduction  of  the 
varied  picture  of  the  events  of  the  last  days. 
We  will  confine  ourselves  to  one  single  point, 
which  affords  us  the  best  illustration  of  the 
effects  of  the  doctrine  of  retribution  in  one 
important  direction,  i.e.  the  doctrine  of 
individual  resurrection,  which  is  first  of 
all  found  in  the  book  of  Daniel.^  The 
author  of  the  book  of  Daniel  believed  in 
the  imminence  of  the  INIessianic  age  in  the  im- 
mediate future ;  it  would,  therefore,  be  the 
height  of  injustice  if  those  who  had  died  in 
fighting  for  the  law — that  is,  the  most  faithful 
and  the  most  righteous — should  be  excluded 

^  Daniel  ;  Isa.  xxiv.-xxvii. ;  Enoch  ;  Baruch  ;  Ezra. 
2  Daniel  xii.  1-3. 


230  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

from  participation  in  the  Messiah's  glorious 
kingdom.  The  only  solution  of  the  difficulty 
was  the  belief  in  their  resurrection,  and  he  was 
compelled  to  accept  this  solution  as  a  necessary 
inference  from  the  doctrine  of  retribution.  It 
is,  however,  quite  possible  that  the  idea  of  a 
resurrection  was  suggested  to  him  by  Parsee- 
ism ;  many  foreign,  Babylonian,  Persian  ele- 
ments very  probably  contributed  to  the  later 
developments  of  Jewish  eschatology.^ 

Under  the  sole  dominion  of  the  law  God 
was  forced  into  the  background  and  con- 
cealed from  the  eyes  of  the  God-fearing  and 
righteous  man.  Finally,  however,  the  law 
not  only  placed  itself  between  God  and  His 
worshippers,  but  even  over  Him,  so  that, 
together  with  the  doctrine  of  retribution,  it 
played  the  part  of  a  fate  superior  to  God, 
and,  therefore,  righteousness,  i.e,  the  strict 
observance  of  the  law  and  the  careful  execu- 
tion   of   a   just   retribution,    was   counted   as 

1  Cp.  E.  Bciklen,  The  Relationship  of  the  Jewish-Christian 
to  the  Parsee  Eschatology,  1902. 


THE   LEGAL   RELIGION  231 

God's  most  important  attribute.  When  once 
the  law  has  been  given  His  initiative  is  at 
an  end,  and  we  can  well  understand  the  later 
Jewish  theology  representing  God  Himself 
as  studying  the  Thora,  for  it  is  there  that 
He  must  see  what  has  to  be  done  in  order 
that  the  course  of  the  world  may  remain  in 
harmony  with  the  law. 

All  that  exalts  the  legal  religion  above  the 
peasant  religion  is  derived  from  the  prophets. 
It  is,  however,  immeasurably  inferior  to  the 
prophetic  religion,  and  its  understanding  of  this, 
the  preceding  stage  of  religious  development, 
is  very  superficial.  In  the  writings  of  the 
prophets  God  is  all  in  all,  in  the  legal  religion 
He  is  forced  into  the  background  ;  in  the  former 
He  is  the  most  living,  the  most  powerful  person- 
ality conceivable ;  in  the  latter,  His  initiative 
is  reduced  to  the  minimum  of  requirements ; 
limits  are  set  to  the  exercise  of  His  power,  and 
His  paths  are  prescribed.  The  religious  and 
ethical  life  of  the  prophets  flows  forth  from 
one  centre,  and,  therefore,  forms  a  complete 


232  RELIGION   OF  THE    OLD  TESTAMENT 

whole,  which  remains  united  with  the  central 
source  of  power  in  the  most  intimate,  in  the 
closest  manner  conceivable.  In  the  legal  re- 
ligion this  life  is  the  result  of  training  and 
instruction,  it  depends  upon  the  knowledge 
of  the  law,  i.e.  the  fidelity  with  which  the 
memory  recollects  the  single  precepts  of  the 
law ;  and  in  establishing  the  relationship 
between  the  law  and  the  individual  memory 
plays  its  part  without  distinguishing  cere- 
monial and  ethical  duties ;  life  is  divided 
up  into  a  number  of  single  acts,  and  the 
ethical  is  degraded  to  the  level  of  the  cere- 
monial. In  the  prophets  all  hope  is  centered 
in  the  power  and  the  being  of  God ;  in  the 
legal  religion  it  depends  upon  the  exact  ful- 
filment of  the  prescriptions  of  the  law  :  there 
salvation  is  the  work  and  the  gift  of  God, 
here  the  reward  for  obedience  to  His  law. 

In  actual  life  we  do  not,  of  course,  find  the 
legal  religion  everywhere  developed  in  this 
strict  logical  sequence  and  free  from  all  ad- 
mixture.    Life  cannot  be  cabined  and  confined 


THE   LEGAL   RELIGION  233 

within  the  narrow  Hmits  of  a  theory;  there 
are  inHuenees  and  powers  at  work  which  resist 
all  attempts  at  such  cast-iron  classification, 
and  protest  against  the  limitation  set  upon 
individual  freedom.  The  work  of  the  pro- 
phets was  not  exhausted  when  they  had 
suggested  a  few  new  thoughts,  which  were 
acceptable  to  the  theorists  who  framed 
the  law.  They  exercised  a  profound  influ- 
ence upon  many  of  their  contemporaries,  and 
in  succeeding  generations,  too,  they  found 
kindred  souls  upon  whom  their  words  made 
a  deep  impression,  to  whom  they  became  the 
sources  of  life  and  of  freedom.  A  rich  and 
varied  religious  life  continued,  therefore,  to 
persist  beneath  the  monotonous  covering  of 
the  law,  and  of  this  many  cheering  signs 
are  to  be  met  with  in  the  O.T. 

There  were  strong  natures,  like  the  writer 
of  the  book  of  Malachi,  who  were  able  to 
quicken  the  dead  mass  of  legal  prescription 
by  never  losing  sight  of  God,  the  author  of 
the  law,  behind  the  dead  ordinances,  and  who 


234  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

understood  and  practised  religion,  not  only  as 
obedience  to  the  laws,  but  as  reverence  and 
love   to   God.      There   were   men   of   strong 

o 

character  and  deep  feeling,  who  could  not 
do  violence  to  their  own  religious  experience 
and  conviction  for  the  sake  of  the  theory  of 
the  law.  Amongst  these  are  many  Psalmists, 
whose  psalms  bear  striking  witness  to  the 
depth  of  their  personal  religion ;  and  most 
noticeable  of  all,  the  author  of  the  book  of 
Job,  who  victoriously  refutes  the  theory  of 
retribution,  throwing  into  the  balance  against 
the  strict  application  of  this  theory,  which 
is  constantly  contradicted  by  the  everyday 
experience  of  life,  the  worth  of  the  righteous 
man's  soul,  which  is  in  communion  with  God. 
To  this  faith  he  clings,  though  God's  ways 
are  dark  to  him.  But  is  not  the  majesty  of 
God  in  the  wonderful  works  of  creation  and 
of  Nature  likewise  past  finding  out  by  the 
human  understanding  ?  With  this  recognition 
of  the  worth  of  the  righteous  man's  soul,  even 
for  God,  with  whom  it  is  united,  the  author 


THE   LEGAL   RELIGION  235 

of  the  book  of  Job  has  laid  a  far  surer 
foundation  for  behef  in  its  everlasting  salva- 
tion than  does  the  book  of  Daniel,  which 
attains  to  belief  in  the  resurrection  through 
conclusions  drawn  from  the  theory  of  re- 
tribution/ And,  lastly,  there  were  broad  and 
liberal-minded  men,  to  whom  the  land  of 
Palestine  was  too  little,  and  the  boundaries 
of  the  Jewish  nation  too  narrow  for  the  one 
Almighty  God  —  men  who  were  therefore 
unable  to  share  in  the  Jewish  pride  in  the 
law,  and  could  not  suffer  God's  care  to  be 
monopolized  for  the  Jewish  nation  alone. 
Malachi  tells  us  that  the  one  God  is  wor- 
shipped in  all  holy  places  throughout  the 
world.  Here,  too,  he  rises  above  mere  forms 
and  names,  and,  looking  down  into  the  depths 
of  the  human  heart,  he  recognizes  that  at 
bottom  humanity  worships  one  God,  how- 
ever great  may  be  the  diversity  of  names. ^ 
In  like  manner  the  authors  of  the  books 
of  Jonah   and   of  Ruth   combat   Jewish   ex- 

1  Cp.  supra,  p.  229.  2  Mai.  i.  11. 


236  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

clusiveness  towards  the  heathen.  The  former 
shows  us  how  Jahwe's  heart  is  wide  enough 
to  embrace  the  people  of  Nineveh,  and  how 
the  final  appeal  is  to  His  mercy  and  not  to 
the  law ;  and  the  latter  proves  the  existence 
of  a  Moabite  ancestress  in  the  genealogical 
tree  of  the  most  fiimous  of  the  kings  of  Israel. 
The  author  of  the  apocalypse  of  Isaiah,  ch. 
xxiv.-xxvii.,  manifests  the  same  prophetic  uni- 
versalism  in  his  description  of  the  feast,^  which 
is  to  be  prepared  for  all  peoples  on  Mount 
Zion,  at  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
By  the  side  of  these  there  were  many  sceptical 
waiters,  men  w^ho  asked,  What  is  the  "  use  "  of 
religion  ?  or  merely  accepted  its  teaching  as  a 
matter  of  form,  while  they  framed  a  theory  of 
life  of  their  own,  seeing  that  all  things  were 
vanity — so,  at  least,  they  might  have  undis- 
turbed enjoyment  of  the  transitory  pleasures 
which  life  offered  them.  Such  w^re  the  oppo- 
nents of  Malachi,  and,  abo^e  all,  the  author  of 
the  book  of  Ecclesiastes. 

1  Isa.  XXV.  6-8. 


THE   LEGAL  llELIGIOxN  237 

The  post-exilic  religion  forms,  therefore,  a 
very  complex  whole,  but  the  mcain  current 
which  regulated  the  direction  of  the  rest  was 
the  legal  religion.  This  finally  swamped  all 
other  currents,  so  that  in  the  late  Jewish 
writings  it  is  only  an  isolated  expression  here 
and  there  that  reminds  us  of  the  prophetic 
conception  of  religion.  To  this  day  we  are 
struck  by  the  variety  and  diversity  of  the  legal 
religion,  with  its  eschatological  speculations, 
its  hair-splitting  application  of  laws,  and  its 
devotional  literature  of  the  JMidrash ;  but  all 
these  are  but  as  climbing  plants  which  hide 
the  solid  and  enduring  mass  within.  The  law 
conquered  ;  to  this  day  it  has  not  budged  an 
inch ;  w^hoever  does  not  yield  obedience  to 
the  law  stands  outside  of  the  community,  and 
is  excluded  from  that  salvation  which  is  con- 
fined to  those  who  submit  to  the  law. 


RETROSPECTIVE   AND 
ANTICIPATIVE 

The  Israelite  religion  became  the  legal  re- 
ligion, which  it  has  remained  to  this  day,  in 
the  course  of  about  one  thousand  years.  In 
all  stages  of  its  development  it  presented  an 
entirely  peculiar  character  as  compared  with 
contemporary  cults.  Even  as  nomad  religion 
it  was  characterized  by  faith  in  Jahwe,  the 
God  of  the  whole  nation  of  the  Israelites,  the 
God,  that  is,  who  from  the  very  first  set  up 
a  national  and  social  ideal,  and  inspired  religion 
with  an  ethical  tendency.  It  was  this  higher, 
more  spiritual  conception  of  Jahwe  as  God 
of  the  common  interests  of  the  whole  people, 
that  helped  the  Israelite  religion  to  victory 
over  the  local  deities  of  Canaan,  and  preserved 

238 


RETROSPECTIVE   AND   ANTICIPATIVE  239 

the  Israelite  peasants  from  exchanging  the 
rehsfion  of  Israel  for  that  of  the  Canaanites. 
However  much  they  took  over  of  the  rites 
and  customs  of  Canaan,  a  distinct  difference 
remained ;  it  was  especially  noticeable  in  the 
fact  that  the  character  of  the  religion  that  they 
had  inherited  from  their  nomad  forefathers 
could  not  be  entirely  obliterated.  Jahwe  never 
abandoned  the  claim  to  justice  and  morality 
as  the  sphere  of  His  dominion.  Of  this 
ethical  side  of  religion  the  prophets  had  a 
pure  and  profound  conception  :  they  freed  it 
from  all  admixture  with  the  cultus,  and  pro- 
claimed it  as  the  true  idea  of  religion  which 
was  to  be  realized  in  human  life.  The  initia- 
tive came  from  God,  God  "  prevented  "  ;  such 
was  the  experience  of  the  prophets  ;  the  only 
answer  that  fully  and  entirely  corresponded 
to  this  initiative  lay  in  the  sphere  of  ethics ; 
there  the  value  of  religion  was  recognized  as 
a  dynamic  of  unfailing  power,  compelling  men 
to  wage  uncompromising  war  against  unright- 
eousness  and   all   uncharitableness.     Religion 


240  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

is  pure  and  genuine  only  where  its  single 
aim  is  ethical  conduct,  and  in  like  manner 
morality  is  deep  and  true  only  where  its 
inner  motive  pow^r  is  religion.  Religion 
and  morality  are  incomplete  unless  they  are 
united,  nay,  more,  unless  they  have  coalesced 
into  one  whole.  Thanks  to  the  prophets,  the 
ethical  element  was  allowed  some  play  by  the 
side  of  the  ceremonial  in  the  legal  religion. 
Both  ethics  and  cultus  were,  it  is  true,  sub- 
sumed under  the  higher  conception  of  law, 
and,  by  being  thus  included,  ethics  lost  some 
of  its  inner  value,  while  the  cultus  gained,  for 
the  emphasis  was  thus  laid  not  merely  on  the 
external  form,  but  also  in  obedience  to  the  law. 
Thus  from  the  very  first,  through  all  the 
stages  of  its  development,  the  Israelite  religion 
is  stamped  with  unmistakable  features  of  its 
own.  The  germ  of  a  religion  that  laid  all 
stress  on  the  ethical  side  is  to  be  discovered 
as  early  as  the  days  of  JMoses,  the  liberator 
of  the  people  and  founder  of  the  Israelite  re- 
ligion.    It  developed  to  its  full  maturity  and 


RETROSPECTIVE    AND   ANTICIPATIVE  241 

bore  its  fairest  fruits  in  the  O.T.  in  the 
prophets,  but  it  remained  indestructible 
amongst  the  peasants  in  Canaan,  nor  did  it 
cease  to  exercise  a  powerful  influence  in  the 
finished  product,  the  legal  religion.  No  other 
religion  of  ancient  times  approaches  the  Israel- 
ite in  the  elevation  of  its  ethical  character. 
None  advanced  beyond  the  stage  of  poly- 
theism and  of  a  religion  which  was  at  bottom 
merely  a  cultus.  We  hear,  it  is  true,  among 
the  heathen  profound  expressions  of  confidence 
in  God,  of  sin  and  of  guilt,  and  earnest  prayers 
for  mercy  and  forgiveness,  but  the  essence 
of  their  personal  religion  consists,  after  all,  in 
the  practice  of  the  cultus  or  of  other  similar 
ceremonies,  and  their  idea  of  the  cultus  is 
the  representation  of  a  mythological  story,  of 
some  heavenly  occurrence,  or  its  object  is  to 
bring  about  communion  with  the  Deity  in 
some  magical,  mystical  fashion.  This  belief 
in  magic  of  all  kinds,  in  sorcery  and  incanta- 
tion, retained  its  strength  unimpaired  among 

the  heathen  ;  even  in  the  profoundest  religious 

16 


242  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

songs  of  the  Babylonian  religion  these  ghostly 
visitors,  demons,  and  evil  spirits  play  an  im- 
portant part,  and  necromancy  and  magic  were 
always  to  the  fore  in  Mesopotamia.  But  the 
most  distinctive  feature  of  the  Israelite  religion 
is  its  ethical  monotheism  —  it  is  altogether 
peculiar  in  the  ancient  world.  There  is 
nothing  that  we  can  place  by  the  side  of  the 
prophetic  religion.  We  meet,  it  is  true,  with 
isolated  instances  amongst  the  Gentiles  where 
ethical  demands  are  connected  with  the 
sanctions  of  religion,  but  neither  are  these 
demands  placed  in  the  centre  of  religion,  nor 
is  the  connection  between  religion  and  ethics 
carried  out  consistently.  Outside  of  Israel  no 
men  arose  who  could  be  called  prophets  in 
the  sense  of  the  great  Israelite  prophets,  and 
throughout  the  whole  of  antiquity  no  poem 
has  been  found  to  equal  the  book  of  .Job  in 
the  depth  of  its  contents,  though  all  manner 
of  parallels  have  been  discovered  to  Job  and 
his  wife.^      However  numerous  the  points  of 

^   Vide  supra,  p.  24. 


RETROSPECTIVE   AND   ANTICIPATIVE  243 

contact  between  Israel  and  the  neigliboiiring 
peoples,  however  many  parallels  may  still  be 
discovered  to  O.T.  passages,  all  this  does  not 
affect  the  peculiarity  of  the  Israelite  religion ; 
it  will  remain  unimpaired,  and  this  peculiarity 
— where  it  is  manifested  in  all  its  strength — is 
ethical  monotheism,  or  the  living  organic  con- 
nection of  religion  and  morality. 

With  the  religion  of  the  prophets  we  stand 
on  the  threshold  of  Christianity,  although 
it  may  be  said,  with  some  show  of  reason, 
"  Judaism  brought  forth  the  Christian  religion 
against  its  will."^  For  we  must  distinguish 
between  the  chronologically  latest  stage  in 
the  development  and  that  which  is  the 
highest  according  to  its  contents.  To  the 
Jewish  legal  religion,  which  finally  determined 
the  will  of  God,  and  reduced  His  demands  to 
the  stereotyped  chapters  of  a  code,  Christianity 
stood  in  sheer  opposition ;  to  the  living  re- 
ligion of  the  prophets  it  forms  the  continua- 
tion  and  the  completion.     Jesus  passed  over 

1  J,  Fromer,  Das  JVesen  des  Judentums,  1905,  p.  155. 


244  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

tlie  later  form  of  the  Jewish  rehgion  in  the 
law,  and  went  back  to  the  prophets.  He 
recognized  in  them  living  religion  and  His 
spiritual  kindred. 

That  which  the  prophets  preached  is  being 
fulfilled.  Since  Jesus  walked  upon  earth 
there  are  not  merely  isolated  individuals,  raised 
above  the  spiritual  stature  of  average  men, 
who  feel  that  God  is  the  Author  and  Lord 
of  their  inner  life,  and  that  they  are  under 
an  irresistible  compulsion  to  do  His  will. 
A  whole  multitude  of  very  simple  folk  may 
now  be  found  who  feel  the  love  and  the 
strength  of  their  heavenly  Father.  Careless 
of  enmity  and  hatred,  they  do  not  merely 
perform  isolated  good  works,  but  know  that 
they  are  bound  to  a  course  of  Hfe  which  forms 
one  complete  whole  firmly  established  on  an 
inner  harmony  of  being.  It  is  a  wonderful 
inner  strength  wherein  they  are  thus  rooted ; 
it  is  a  clear  conviction  which  guides  them 
everywhere,  and  it  is  a  fine  sensibility  which 
teaches   them   to   understand   their    heavenly 


RETROSPECTIVE   AND   ANTICIPATIVE  245 

Father's  will  at  all  times.  They  are  Jesus' 
disciples,  and  it  is  to  Jesus  that  they  trace 
back  their  knowledge  of  God  as  tlieii'  heavenly 
Father,  and  their  feeling  of  obligation  to  a 
life  of  righteousness. 

Jesus  therefore  succeeded  where  the  pro- 
phets failed.  The  prophets  felt  God's  power 
in  themselves,  and  they  said  that  this  same 
power  should  fill  the  hearts  of  their  fellow- 
citizens.  But  Jesus  brought  God's  power 
near  to  men,  and  gave  them  an  understand- 
ing for  it  by  living  in  the  midst  of  His 
contemporaries,  the  life  of  one  who  was 
entirely  possessed  by  the  power  of  God,  and 
this  life  was  passed  at  once  under  the  simplest 
and  most  everyday  circumstances,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  under  the  most  abnormal 
and  difficult  that  could  possibly  exist  for  any- 
one. Besides  this,  all  the  various  features  in 
the  prophetic  ideal,  which  appeared  success- 
ively in  the  prophets,  were  concentrated  in 
Jesus,  and  coalesced  into  one  single  har- 
monious whole,  so  that  in  all  His  deeds  and 


U6  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

words  one  was  placed  in  presence  of  His 
inmost  being.  These  men  could  see  the 
constant  and  living  communion  in  which  He 
hved  with  God,  and  how  He  was  filled  with 
the  majesty  of  the  moral  law :  like  the 
prophets,  He  called  for  love,  not  sacrifice, 
purity  of  heart  as  well  as  of  hands,  faithful- 
ness and  mercy  under  all  circumstances,  and 
not  formal  compliance  with  the  law.  Nor  is 
it  to  be  forgotten  that  God  was  recognized 
by  Him,  not  merely  generally  as  an  ethical 
and  spiritual  person,  but  more  especially  as 
a  Father,  who,  in  all  things  great  and  small, 
shows  a  Father's  love  and  care,  to  whom,  in 
all  cases,  childlike  trust  and  love  are  due. 

Just  as  Jesus  knew  Himself  to  be  near  to 
His  heavenly  Father  in  all  circumstances  of 
His  life,  accepted  all  that  happened  to  Him 
as  His  Father's  will,  and  accomplished  His 
Father's  will  m  all  that  He  did,  so  likewise 
He  placed  His  disciples  in  the  presence  of 
God,  opening  their  eyes  and  hearts — their 
eyes    so   that   they  could   recognize   the   will 


RETROSPECTIVE   AND   ANTICIPATIVE  247 

of  their  heavenly  Father  in  the  simplest  ex- 
periences of  their  lives,  and  their  hearts  so 
that  they  could  feel  God's  love  and  power. 
That  is  w^hy  His  disciples  and  followers  feel 
assured  that  it  is  through  Jesus  that  they 
have  become  children  of  God,  and  that  all  that 
Jesus  did  and  suffered  was  done  in  the  service 
of  love  for  them — for  their  salvation.  So 
He  has  become  the  true  helper  of  all  who  will 
suffer  themselves  to  be  helped  and  for  whom 
this  help  is  not  too  simple  and  too  deep.  But 
He  is  not  at  all  the  kind  of  helper  whom  the 
Jews  expected.  They  expected,  above  all 
else,  political  achievements  of  their  Messiah, 
such  as  liberation  from  the  Roman  yoke 
and  the  establishment  of  a  new  Jewish  state. 
That  is  why  Jesus  rejected  the  Jewish  ideal 
of  the  Messiah,  and  if  He  suffered  Himself 
to  be  called  Messiah  at  all — and  of  this  we 
are  not  certain — then  He  gave  the  name  a 
much  deeper,  an  altogether  different  signi- 
fication, that  of  one  who  would  help  the 
human    soul   to   receive   a   living   impression 


248  RELIGIOxV   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

of   the    love    and    power    of    the    heavenly 
Father. 

As  the  knowledge  of  the  spiritual  and 
etliical  being  of  God  was  thus  deepened,  so 
the  sense  of  obligation  to  a  life  of  righteous- 
ness became  at  once  more  intense,  and  em- 
braced ever  wider  spheres.  Just  as  God  is 
recognized  as  love,  as  the  heavenly  Father, 
so  love  to  one's  fellow-men  as  brothers  is  to 
be  the  sovereign  power  in  the  life  of  God's 
children.  It  is  not  enough  to  refrain  from 
doing  wrong,  fi'om  employing  unrighteous 
means,  from  warding  off  that  which  is  evil 
and  vile ;  filled  with  love  to  one's  neighbour, 
one  must  go  on  to  do  good  to  him  and 
help  him,  just  as  one  would  wish  to  be  done 
by  oneself.  The  prophets,  too,  know  that 
the  righteous  man,  the  man  who  is  religious, 
who  knows  God,  ought  to  practise  love  and 
show  mercy,  and  they  preach  the  duty ;  but 
Jesus  places  love  to  one's  neighbour  in  the 
very  centre  of  all  duties,  with  Him  it  is  the 
pith  and  marrow  of  a  life   of  righteousness, 


RETROSPECTIVE   AND   ANTICIPATIVE  249 

so  that  the  good  man  is  enabled  even  to 
suffer  in  order  to  show  love  to  his  neighbour, 
and  to  sacrifice  his  own  goods  and  comfort 
for  his  neighbour's  sake. 

This  is  where  the  power  of  the  divine  love 
is  revealed.  In  the  saying,  "  Whatsoever 
ye  would  that  men  should  do  unto  you,  even 
so  do  ye  also  unto  them,"  we  have  the  ex- 
pression of  the  dynamic  which  the  Christian 
knowledge  of  God  supplies,  and  in  Jesus'  life 
we  have  a  living  example  of  the  certainty 
and  energy  which  this  profound  sense  of  God's 
love  confers.  No  one  ever  judged  the  position 
in  which  he  was  placed  or  recognized  his  task 
with  such  absolute  certainty  as  Jesus  did,  nor 
did  anyone  ever  perform  the  accepted  task  with 
such  quietness  and  energy.  It  is  in  man's 
heart  within  and  not  in  the  world  without 
that  we  must  look  for  the  lever  wherewith  to 
prepare  the  way  for  the  new  kingdom,  to 
open  an  entrance  for  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
Nor  is  the  goal,  therefore,  to  be  attained  in 
the  whole  world  at  once.     We  need  to  hope, 


250  RELIGION   OF  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 

and  to  wait  patiently  till  the  seed  have 
ripened  into  the  perfect  fruit,  and  the  whole 
mass  be  leavened.  But  God's  power  and 
love  render  the  victory  certain ;  God  is  all  in 
all  to  Jesus,  that  is  the  enthusiasm  which  fills 
Him.  Hence,  too,  as  it  is  God's  will,  He  can 
drink  the  cup  and  go  to  meet  death  without 
doubting  that  God's  cause  will  still  conquer, 
and  that  surely. 

The  prophets  had  experience  of  God's  power, 
and  recognized  the  connection  between  ethics 
and  religion.  Jesus'  conception  of  the  being 
of  God  was  still  more  profound,  and  He  mani- 
fested in  His  life  and  death  the  most  intimate 
union  between  faith  and  love.  The  work  of 
the  prophets  was  almost  exclusively  to  preach 
the  power  of  religion  which  is  to  transform 
life.  Jesus  did  not  only  deepen  this  rehgion, 
He  realized  it.  Jesus'  profound  perception  of 
the  fact  that  it  is  God  who  is  the  author  of 
all  good,  led  to  a  life  of  love  for  the  salva- 
tion of  His  fellow-men.  However  small  the 
circumstances    in    which    Jesus    moved,   the 


RETROSPECTIVE   AND   ANTICIPATIVE  251 

prophetic  religion  became  a  reality  through 
Him,  and  henceforth  proved  its  indestructible 
vitality.  It  has  remained  proof  against  all 
attempts  to  confine  it  within  the  formulas  of 
a  new  legal  religion,  or  to  daub  it  over  with 
the  traditional  dogmas  of  Jewish  eschatology, 
or  even  at  times  to  set  theology  in  its  place. 
Again  and  again  it  has  burst  its  bonds  and 
has  gone  forth  victorious.  To-day  it  is  surely 
recognized  that  true  religion  is  only  to  be 
found  where  the  prophetic  ideal  is  realized, 
where  religion  and  ethics  have  coalesced  into 
a  living  organism. 


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